So far I’ve played only the US, obsessively, so I guess that’s my favorite country for now. I swear I’ll play the UK in my next game. But then again, I’ve already thought of a dozen things I’d do differently in my next US game…
Speaking of which, China did fall again, but at least this time I’ve still got a chance. I established a forward defense and in mid-1942 still hold the Philippines, Guam, Wake, Attu, etc. Japan has sunk several of my capital ships (mostly old BBs) with its carriers, but I’ve sunk a ton of troop convoys and lighter ships, and I have air superiority everywhere. The trouble is, they have naval superiority around the Philippines and Guam, so I haven’t been able to go on the offensive. They’re also slowly marching toward India. I’m gonna try putting some ground troops in India to help. I’ve put in aircraft already; not sure how much help they are.
If it gets too late in the game do some countries become invincible due to tech progression and defensive build-up like the U.S.? I’m in 1949 and am wondering if invading the U.S. is going to be pointless. I can’t seem to breakthru from Alaska into Canada, but was thinking of doing a mass invasion of all along the West Coast. Maybe Mexico too.
Also - how do you do amphibious vehicles? Do you put them in infantry groups? or do them on their own?
So confused again. I know I’m setting up amphibious assaults properly but it’s not assigning the divisions to my assault plans. Is there some kind of convoy troop limit I’m unaware of? I am a billion percent sure I’m setting up the invasion order properly. One of my other assaults only assigned 7 of the 24 divisions for some reason.
Pics are to show I have tons of free convoys, and that it assigned 0 divisions to my amphibious plan. I do have 3 other plans setup with actual troops assigned to the arrow and the countdown going.
See I’ve got these dudes going across right now, but when I try to assign amphibious orders to anyone else, 0 people are assigned. I’ve completely researched everything in the game now too.
Mostly I’ve gone through the Pacific, using Australia as a staging point. It’s been safe so far. One rogue division did decide to go via Africa, which is half-controlled by Italy, but it made it safely too. Now the biggest front in WW2 is in northeast India! The Soviets and Russians are stalled just east of the Polish border.
I’m a little befuddled by invasions too. How do you recon the enemy?
I’ve pulled off one little test invasion successfully. I took one little island in the southeast part of the Marshall Islands group. But I guess that’s only one little bit of the “state” of the Marshalls. So then I tried invading Eniwetok, where there’s an annoying hive of Japanese Betties (land-based torpedo bombers). I couldn’t figure out how to recon them. (No recon aircraft in this game, grr.) So I loaded up four divisions, along with a big fleet of naval invasion support. The divisions arrived and … poofed. I have no idea what happened. I guess they were destroyed, but I got no popup or anything, and the region’s stats doesn’t mention loss of any troops.
So how does one take the Marshalls? Do I have to load up an invasion for every little island, and work my way gradually toward Eniwetok? More generally, how does one recon?
I’d be willing to bet that if you took a look at naval battle results there would be something that showed some Japanese bombers taking out some convoys which would be your invasion force. There has been many times where my attempted landing on the British Isles was wiped out not by Allied shipping but Allied bombers who blew the **** out of my invasion force, wiping them all out in very short order.
Unless you rule the seas and the air (and I would say by a lot in the air) keep your forces doing small island jumps to minimize the time that they are vulnerable to enemy bombers.
As for scouting, it seems to me that radar stations can actually reveal ground troops. Otherwise I find that if I have active shipping on the enemy coast I sometimes get a peek to see if there are indeed any defenders in that particular area.
Thanks. That was my guess too, and I did see some air attacks on convoys – but I also watched all four divisions arrive intact at the target, so I thought they’d avoided the bombers. Yes, I’ve decided to amplify my air superiority before trying again.
Thanks also for the advice on small hops. That did seem to work, and it had an authentic island-hopping feel, so I guess I’ll do more. Will I “own” the Marshalls if I island-hop onto 51% of its territory?
Also, is there a way to impose a naval blockade to starve an airbase of supply? (I gather one can target airfields with strategic bombing with one of the DLCs, but I don’t have that DLC, so my strategic bombers just bomb random things.)
Edit: Thanks for the shots. Both my nearby bases (Wake and Phoenix) have level 5 radar. No help. And I don’t think I can build radar on my little corner of the Marshalls, at least not yet.
OK, thanks. I’ve asked some of my questions on the Paradox forums, so we’ll see what people say.
Do other folks find it challenging to play as the US on Regular difficulty? I feel like I’m fighting the entire Axis by myself, lol – 20 divisions in India, many more in the Pacific, a few in England, aircraft and ships everywhere. Fun but tough.
If you have fleets on convoy raiding and good detection in the sea zone you should be pretty much blocking supply to the island which I think drops the naval bombers mission efficiency into the ground. If they were tanks they would also take a 90% stats hit on top of that for being out of fuel.
Also if you put your own fighters in the air zone on air supp or interception they should disrupt the bombers.
I’ve got fighters and convoy raiders, but evidently not enough; I’ll add more. Thanks.
@KevinC I’ve been thinking about playing a minor just to see whether a mostly AI vs AI game invariably plays out in the Axis’s favor. I’d been thinking Oz, but the Dutch sound good too. Although I’ve read that some players’ Dutch take over the world, so hmm. What do you like about their focus tree?
I’m not sure this works. I have a recollection of seeing something in a development diary that convoys only carry troops and resources, not supplies, so you can’t block them. Probably because it would be really easy to abuse against the AI.
At one point convoy raiding had very little effect on supply but as far as I know they fixed it and sinking supply convoys will seriously disrupt supply transfer.
