1796

@MikeJ @jpinard Playing as the US, I’ve had mixed success preventing invasions by the Japanese, even when I have naval AND air supremacy. Sometimes the incoming-invasion warning will flash for days, and I never see the enemy at all. Sometimes my patrols do find an enemy TF, my strike force engages, and that thwarts an invasion. But most frustrating is when 6 Japanese divisions abruptly appear on my island, with no sign of enemy ships. Historically amphibious invasions sometimes sneaked in under cover of night, but not with 6 divisions!

Also, is it possible to evacuate outnumbered ground troops? I’m not sure how many ground troops to commit to defending atolls. It’s a high-risk thing, because if you commit a lot and lose, there’s nowhere to retreat. Optimally I defend islands with the fleet and air force, but that doesn’t always work.

1797

It’s automatic after you set them to this role. To do that, select the task force with your bruisers in it and select the Strike Force mission (it’s on the bar along with other ones like Patrol, Convoy Escort, Convoy Raiding, etc). Once they’re set to this task, they will wait in port for your patrols to locate the enemy fleet and then they’ll head out to engage.

1798

I typically have two full 20-width infantry divisions guarding places like Wake, Guam, etc. These are 10 infantry brigades with Engineer and Artillery support companies. I also usually build up coastal fortifications and radar in Guam and Wake where I expect a lot of heat. I also beef up the port and airfield in Guam so I can put some fighters and naval bombers there to harass the IJN.

For the small atolls I usually just have a single 10-width infantry division division with engineers, unless I feel like they are going to be the likely target of attack. The Japanese have always prioritized the islands in my games.

1799

Thanks. I’ve put 3 default divisions into each of the places you’ve mentioned, and I’ve built level-10 coastal forts and some radar.

Do land forts help at all in defending islands/atolls?

1800

As far as I know, land forts would only help if they landed paratroopers. I don’t think they contribute to naval invasion defense. They might help on Hawaii where you can move land units from island to island, but I haven’t tested that scenario.

1801

Does land-based radar detect ships in the game?

I’ve got to say my hats off to those of you who somehow learned this game without all the help this forum provides. I don’t know how you do, except you must be decryption genius’s.

1802

One thing Paradox is really good at these days is putting so much information in tooltips. A lot can be sussed out by hovering the mouse over everything.

I actually really enjoy figuring games out. When I was a kid, I would walk a couple miles to the nearest video rental store and rent Koei’s Genghis Khan, Bandit Kings of Ancient China, and Romance of the Three Kingdoms for my NES. None of them came with any kind of instruction manual, so I would spend hours days trying to figure out how things worked and what did what. It took me months to figure out what Hearts were in Bandit Kings and why I would care to kill tigers and bears that were terrorizing my people.

1803

Detection and visibility are averaged across the TF. Air wings average their stats among the components aircraft. This can be important if say your top model has the range to cover the region but you take a few losses and it starts to replace them with lower-ranged models from the stockpile. The resulting hit to efficiency from reduced range might make the wing as a whole much less effective than if you had not replaced the losses.

I don’t think the system averages across air wings, so mixing trained and untrained shouldn’t be an issue.

Maybe have a good number of ships set to attack convoys? Apparently troops in transfer and naval invasions are highly visible to convoy raiders. more so than regular resource/supply convoys. To the extent that troops in transit can sometime hardly move because they are constantly getting attacked by subs.

A lot of stuff is just wasting too much time on the forum for a period of years. Some of it is also due to a particular user called Bitmode who actually decompiles the games executable to figure out the rules. That players have to go to these lengths just to figure out what the actual rules are is a black eye for the devs, IMO.

Edit: I guess “black eye” is a bit harsh. The game is very complex and they do explain a lot in terms of tool tips. However, a lot of very important things are not explained at all apart from tearing apart the executable. IMO the devs should have a pseudo code explanation for how everything is supposed to work in the game mechanics. That would help people find bugs and mechanical problems. I think it would also help the devs since I think some of the things Bitmode has uncovered must be a surprise to them.

1804

Ooh, set up convoy-raider TFs in expected invasion zones? I like that idea! Should I use CL/DD, CA/CL/DD, or subs?

1805

Trying to grab the bull by the naval horns… so I want to invade the US and Canada as the Soviets. The UK is mostly neutralized, and I have to do US first because Japan is an insane behemoth and I am terribly dependent on them for rubber. The problem I see is it is going to take forever to build up a decent navy force to deal with the U.S. Same goes for convoys as I will apparently need way more convoys than I have. It seems odd it takes 3000 convoy ships just to transport a 24 division group?

So what should I make, what kinds of numbers, to attempt this insane feat?

1806

I guess it depends what they have escorting? Usual convoy escorts would probably be optimised against subs, so mostly DDs? In which case I would use CAs and CLs. But if they have heavier stuff defending maybe you need heavier stuff for raiding. Though there seem to be some discussion that a CA/CL fleet with good designs (and the right doctrines and fight cover) can wreck everything.

1807

Thanks. I’ll experiment!

1808

24 divisions is a lot of men and material.

D-day used about half that number for about 1/3 that many troops.

As far as pulling it off… good luck I can’t imagine getting a big enough Navy out of the USSR.
Your best bet is probably via Alaska since it’s a smaller area to control the ocean of.

1809

Good thing you mentioned that because I was going to try and invade New York LOL (yes I have no clue what the I’m doing in amphibious warfare)

1810

The problem with invading through Alaska is it takes forever for your troops to move through the mountains into Canada. That gives America plenty of time to move into position to counter.

I’d probably land between Vancouver and Portland. I think a lot of the US troops are in California. My Japanese invasion stalled around Sacramento when we hit a large enemy presence. I’d bring mountain troops to quickly get through the Cascades and Rockies. Try to break through around Montana then use motorized units to quickly head south down the east side of the Rockies to cut off the west coast.

My invasion had about 150 divisions and stalled for a bit. I’d say go with over 200 divisions.

The naval aspect might be a problem though. I had wiped out the US fleet when I landed. Are they a,t war with Japan?

One thing I find works. Land next to a naval Base, not directly at it. After they land then have your units take the port. The provinces next to ports seem to have less resistance then attacking directly. Also, if you can hold off long enough and have a lot of civ factories, you can build your own port, like D-Day but not as fast.

1811

If you want to stick with the East Coast, you can always invade Newfoundland and then leapfrog to Nova Scotia. There are plenty of choke points to control the army side of things while being close enough that the naval side isn’t awful. From there, you can either go inland or continue hopping down the eastern seaboard. The AI really isn’t up to the task of repelling naval invasions effectively. You’re about to start experimenting with one of the weakest areas of the game.

1812

While true, it’s going to take even longer to build a Navy that can control the Atlantic as USSR imo.
I could be wrong, but I don’t see how it would work unless the US has already lost most of it’s Navy or something.

1813

Is that why Japan has such an easy time with China?

1814

I think that’s part of it, but China has a host of other issues.

I think the biggest weakness is that the AI doesn’t/can’t recognize the strategic significance of a naval invasion. To the AI it’s another small front with X units that needs to be contained; In reality a successful invasion at/near a port is something that needs to be crushed with all might lest unlimited numbers of units pour into it.

1815

I’m not sure I have the patience for that kind of thing lol.