Blashy

Not much, I kill a TAC bomber on Iwo Jima and bring the ground unit to STR 1. More Russian troops arrive. UK is moving slowly into China, weather is crap.

So not much really, Stalin tells the soviets to probe Japan defenses and they do which results in a massacre since I have L0 IW and Japan is at L2. But my US Airpower up north bombs the two cities closest to Russia as Russia pulls back. Up north of Manchuria we show up with L3 tanks and with their 2 strikes the Russian take that city easily. An error on Japan's part as they leave Communits China unmanned a partisan pops up. Way west in China one Japanese unit moves in but the Russians show up for support and even with lesser tech that unit is in very poor supply so we expect it to retreat. A Fighter keeps attacking Iwo Jima and getting hits. Very small advances in China for UK, rain keeps the US airpower from being operational. I major naval engagement is probably about to occur soon enough. The Russian navy starts bombing Japan in the north under cover of US airpower.

As stated above me, you do ALLOT more damage to PH in this game than how it was historically. You make 4 carrier attacks compared to 2.

I really like your take on the Soviets thetwo. The more I play the more I find that USSR might have pretty much remained neutral until the very end or basically when US/UK Victory was assured and USSR would have joined simply to get some strategic lands. When I look at their historic interests in that area they seem quite minimal. So you might be on to something here.

SC2 ETO Fall Weiss has the fault of making the game balance... as if Germany ever had a chance to DEFEAT the Allies. This was corrected in PTO something I am VERY happy about. And playing Japan can be quite fun once you figure out how to make life for the advancing allies miserable. The harder it is for them the more they will press hastily and make mistakes.

Not really as they are not rails that take you all the way to India. And as I said, India can easily be stacked with lots of units. Maybe India can be taken vs. the AI at the standard setting but not the highest one. As for mainland USA... never gonna happen vs. the AI at higher settings or a human player.

India is pretty hard to crack, UK gets allot of units and if you do invest in them instead of the navy (which I did) you can pretty much have more units than Japan. If Japan has more units it means China will live on and IMHO that is the key in this game, you have to get China to surrender. UK kills the HQ on Singapore so it should fall next turn. We move into China by taking another city (Kumning). Long range shows that Borneo has one airfleet defending. We take Guam. Rain prevents me from bombing his convoy ports but they are still down. This leaves my air free to attack a TAC bomber unit in Manchuria and I manage to eliminate the unit after 2 fighter attacks on it, I do not know if it was damaged already of if my super fighters are showing their might (L4 Fighters). Solomon islands are under attack and we expect more Japanese units to arrive, that one fighter squadron is holding on best it can.

Changing it would be unrealistic. The monsoon season in that area can last up to 6-8 months out of the year. What you need to do is plan to have your air power somewhere else or operate them in at the proper time. Maybe Bill can revise it but I am confident he has it pretty much in tune with how it is in reality. Bill maybe you can tell the players when Monsoon season is for that area? Not many people will know about looking at the scripts.

USA Take back Wake Island. UK liberates Vietnam by killing the HQ. Tanks are on the way to Singapore. The 4 Western most Chinese villages are under partisan control, 20mpps for China! Convoys are still down. Russian bear is waking up... about freaking time.

Hey Colin, out of curiosity how many MPPs are you losing from the convoys ? And how many total MPPs are you making at this point? The highest I ever peaked at with Japan was about 730 or so.

Feb 1944. A better turn for the Allies than expected. We make our first steps into Chinese territory as we kill the paratroop that was guarding the first village into China from Thailand. In taking the village we cut off 2 other units from supply as we have a partisan that has taken the village behind them (last turn). We take the northern most village into Singapore, just two airflleets and one HQ guarding it now. In Vietnam we almost kill the HQ on the capital. In West China another city falls to the moving partisan unit, I should be able to get two more and that will be it. I again manage to bomb the two ports giving convoy supply so the island convoys are totally cut off, that has to be 250 or so MPPs each turn. I capture one more island and the village of Saipan who is on the same island as Tinian. He tries to land and capture the Solomon Islands but I have a UK TAC Bomber on the city so his unit is without supply. He goes after my sub but in dying my sub does 3 points of damage to his destroyer, so I am happy, reinforcing the navy is quite costly for Japan that was my goal for the UK navy, let it die by not reinforcing my starting units but whatever damage I did I knew it would hurt in the long run. The biggest prize is that he brought his carriers around that area and I got clear weather in February, so I used my L3 NW Tac bombers and sink one carrier while the other takes damage from my fighters. It sure was a nice time to get clear weather!

Yeah just being able to launch bombs from ONE location is not really making sense. There was a reason the Japanese were though in the Philippines, Taiwan, Okinawa and Iwo Jima. They did not want USA to close to home. All those locations you can easily launch nukes. Heck if I can have 5-6 air on Esotoro there is no reason I could not launch an A bomb from there as well.

Op Z is strategic overall, brigade would bring in too much tactical and micromanaging. The beauty of SC series is they are not about micromanaging. This is what keeps me coming back to this game.

Not much this turn, I have snow north of Japan so I can not bomb him. At sea I take another small island, close to Wake. Russia is at 71% but still a small threat. Japan is having a difficult time with partisans, they kill the one on Peking but another one appears on Kunming cutting off 3 units who are under attacking by Australian troops. Another partisan pops up in the far west of China and will take another city next turn, that part always happens as there is no rail for Japan to send units, you have a good chance of getting all 4 far west cities in every game. Rain season is back in Burma / Vietnam so he will most likely be able to get away with his HQs. It is January so the weather is bad for the Allies.

Minty you will love it, Opz IS Historical in the sense that Japan can NOT defeat the enemy. Japan achieves Victory (3 types) by holding on until date X. It is a challenge because you have to know when it is time to go on the defensive and position yourself properly. It actually reminds me of my ETO mod that gave USA its historical MPPs and made Germany having to hold on to date X for victory.

Two HQs are cut off from escaping via transport in Vietnam and Singapore. Vietnam has no defense while Singapore has 2 fighters, 1 Army and 1 HQ. China will surrender next turn, Peking partisan survives 3 attacks. I am glad I got his 2 carriers now because with Chinese plunder he would have refitted them. We grab the village of Tinian (close to Iwo Jima) . I think both convoys are down again. Russia is years away from joining it seems (still at 23%).

He could have just operated that unit there. Which means he will have to wait until next turn before attaching it to the HQ.

JJvR... Terif is probably studying every nook and cranny in the scripts and when he shows up he will once again be master of all things PTO and crush everyone. Unless Jolly Ranger comes back and commits in the same manner. FYI to all who do not know of Terif. When I say he knows all the scripts by heart that does not mean this is how he wins, he is a master of supply knowledge, unit movements and everything else. He was undefeated in SC2 in over 100 HvH matches and lost less than 5 times in SC1 in over 1000 matches. There was only one player who committed the mastering the game like him and he only did it for a few months and almost beat Terif a few times, apart from that no one comes close. BUT, play him as Japan and you the Allies and you will surely be mesmerized by how much he dominates. I actually enjoyed my 2 losses vs. him (SC2 ETO) as it was a thing of beauty to see in action.

Let us see if this is the right size I attached. BAH! It will not save it in the same size I have it on my desktop which is a measly 228k.

Damn it, my firefox just crashed. This will be much shorter than what I had earlier. I lose 3 carriers, was expecting 2 losses but bad positioning on my part cost me another. I lose more ships than him but his navy is busted up, while mine is big and strong. His convoys are gone, that should take 250-300mpps each turn from Japan. I liberate Thailand, he goes for a hold of Singapore while Vietnam is poorly manned at this time. I land a unit on the oil fields of DEI and take the port as well. This is December 1943.

December 1943, the naval battle starts! I used my super long range bombers up north of Japan to bomb both supply ports (convoy routes) from the Islands, that should hurt his MPPs. But at the same time he has 2 carriers that intercept my bombers, which lets me spot their location which is in between Japan and Manchuria. I decide to probe ahead with a ship on the coast of Tokyo and with no enemy ships near I move in with my carriers and attack those carriers OVER Japan using my long range air power, I sink two of them and a troop transport. This lets me spot his armada around his carriers, he was keeping it close to home so I take the fight over there. This triggers his home guard but that is sure to happen eventually, sinking a couple of carriers was too appealing. In Burma I kill a few units and bomb the ports just to be sure there is no transports, I could not get the rails severed so he can operate troops.

That was the reality of WW2, Japan could NOT win. It could only survive and hold on to try and ask for peace on somewhat equal terms. That is what I love so much about this campaign, it makes historical sense, unlike the ETO campaign where Germany can outright BEAT the allies, which is totally preposterous. A good Japanese player will learn to dig in at the proper spots and make life hell for the allies to advance and they in turn will feel pressed for time while Japan bids its time until end game and wins by holding key positions. If you want both sides to have equal chances of defeating the other... only chess will give you that.

Nov 1943. We destroy a cruiser parked at Iwo Jima, 2 carriers intercept my carrier so I get a pretty good idea of where the IJN battlegroup is... I sense it is about to get bloody for both sides at sea. I kill a unit in Thailand, I also eliminate the convoy from Thailand and bomb the one in Vietnam but I do not know if it was enough to stop the convoy (I doubt it). That Peking unit is a pest, keeps holding on by 1-2 life. China will be doomed soon enough. The North of Japan is severely hampered in supply, luckily they have HQs on site. That was my last turn for today.

FYI, I wanted to edit my post and add at the top that this is geared towards very experience SC2 players. Maybe one of the moderators could do so?

I agree with your opinion, the AI is quite good. This thread is as Bill stated for very experienced SC2 players.