abukede Posted December 17, 2008 Share Posted December 17, 2008 Having been an addicted Strategic Command player I must say I love the addition of Pacific Theater. I am still in my first game playing as Japan. I just entered 43 and I am impressed. China is on the ropes... concentrated airpower against them. Austrailia has lost a lot of ships. UK has shown up with a carrier in the Indian ocean... surprise attack on one of my destroyer units. I am moving carriers to kill it. I have also taken Guadacanal and am in the process of fortifying the island, and reinforceing it with air, ground, HQ and AAA. So far the USA has not made a move against me which worries me greatly as I am very weak along the island chain. I absolutely love how carriers work with separate airwing. I would like to see this addition to the other SC games. My only complaint is I think Japan starts overly weak in the islands. Cant wait to play this game multi-player as the strategy options appears to be wide open and nail biting. Keep up the excellent work. abu Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hubert Cater Posted December 17, 2008 Share Posted December 17, 2008 Abukede, glad to hear you are enjoying the game and not to worry as things should slowly start to heat up with the US throughout 1943 and into 1944-45. US needs some time to re-organize and get its units and ships into place, AI is purposefully more methodical and slighly more risk adverse than a human player would be, but after that you should see lots of action Hubert Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottsmm Posted December 18, 2008 Share Posted December 18, 2008 If you've played the demo you've noticed that besides the US moving it's new navy units from San Francisco to Pearl Harbour, and that's about all they do in the campagin minus fighting a defensive fight in the Philippines. With that being said Hubert, do you think it would be a good strategy to conquer Hawii and Midway, or should you just bypass them all together? When I say this I'm mainly talking about the early part of the campaign, and what would the effects be to the US abilty to counter-act any of my future movements, because of there base being another 1,000 or so square miles away. Would it slow them down or speed them up to retake Hawii and Midway? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blashy Posted December 18, 2008 Share Posted December 18, 2008 I have taken those Islands from the AI a few times and quite honestly I did not see a difference in how it played out, funny as in one game it let me keep it the whole time and took other Islands. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottsmm Posted December 18, 2008 Share Posted December 18, 2008 then I guess there is no script in the AI to retake the islands if captured. What I typically would do would just abort the invasion of Wake and Guam, and instead capture Midway and Hawaii since there is more value in capturing them. Anyway thanks Blashy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hubert Cater Posted December 18, 2008 Share Posted December 18, 2008 scottsmm, The Demo is only 6 months and plays until the beginning of June 1942 so it is likely you won't see much from the US (in that time frame) as it prepares its forces for the battles ahead. As Blashy mentioned losing Hawaii and/or Midway would be devastating to the Allied AI if I didn't plan for that accordingly so the current script planning enables the AI to continue the fight regardless of these losses. Plan is to of course add more variety to the AI as we move forward and don't be surprised if it plays more dynamically in the patches to come Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill101 Posted December 18, 2008 Share Posted December 18, 2008 I lost Hawaii in a few pbem games during playtesting, and it was a bit of a pain, but the situation facing Japan is that ultimately the US will return in major force, and Pearl Harbor is a long way from Japan. The Japanese end up with a problem - do they keep their navy at Hawaii to defend it from the US counter attack (which might not come for some time) or do they use their navy elsewhere and risk losing Hawaii very easily? But what would a game be without strategic problems to get the brain working! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottsmm Posted December 19, 2008 Share Posted December 19, 2008 Hubert, I do know that the demo goes to something like June 7th and your right you don't see much at all from the US. However when I was talking about the effects of the loss of Midway and Hawaii I was more wondering if the US would launch an automatic task force out to reclaim them as soon as possible, or if the US would simplay bypass them and fight other battles instead. Bill101, Japan has a huge navy, and because of that and the casulties that the US navy will take at Pearl Harbour, it will ultimatly give the Japs the chance to fight in multiple areas with their navy. The other thing is the time at which you take them. I personally succeed at taking them around Febuary 42' so the threat of the US navy really doesn't exist. I guess I've made it pretty clear of what my strategy is for this great game, but so be it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timskorn Posted December 19, 2008 Share Posted December 19, 2008 Scott, I think you'll have to play your first full game as Japan and see how your strategy goes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blashy Posted December 19, 2008 Share Posted December 19, 2008 The Japs have a huge navy... agreed 100%. USA has a HUMONGOUS navy and once it gets going Japan is toast if it splits up and it can get going pretty fast if a player goes that route. Add USA and UK, Japan is dwarfed. Japan is playing against time and that is the biggest challenge, knowing when it is time to be on the defensive and where you will make those biggest defensive lines to hold on until the time limit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottsmm Posted December 19, 2008 Share Posted December 19, 2008 Timskorn, I couldn't agree with you more it's just I'm very careful about making purchases over the internet, and therefore I'm still waiting for money to transfer into my paypal account so no private info has to be revealed. In other words let's just say Christmas is going to be a little more special then what it usually is. Blashy, I'm sure your right, but in truth I'm not playing aganst time in the demo it's only half a year so I don't have to actually worry about making a defensive stand. Reasons for this is my biggest opponent is the troops in the Phillapines, and maybe China but the Chinnese are just like Russia in the fact that they have big numbers but are lacking quality fighting units. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hubert Cater Posted December 19, 2008 Share Posted December 19, 2008 scottsmm, I think I see the source of confusion on our part as we are thinking *full game* when it comes to our responses while you are still confined to the demo. I think once you play the full game you'll be able to test out your strategies in more detail. I think power moves to Pearl Harbor and Midway can be good but it all depends on how your opponent reacts, AI or Human and like Blashy mentions it might just delay the inevitable push back by the US as they do receive quite a few naval reinforcements (as well as ramped up MPPs) as the game goes on. Either way I think you'll have lots of fun testing it all out Hubert Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blashy Posted December 19, 2008 Share Posted December 19, 2008 This is simple. If you like the game mechanics from playing the demo... you will LOVE the overall game as it plays out. Buy it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottsmm Posted December 19, 2008 Share Posted December 19, 2008 I'm going to buy it. I haven't missed one of the SC series so far and certainly don't intend to. I'm sure your right, but from my experiences with other games of this nature + the demo I don't see much resistance offered by the allies. On top of all that I think it's accurate, because the Americans didn't become fully commited until 1943 and 44' in there island hoping campagin. With that being said if you take Hawaii and Midway, you should be able to limit what the US can do unless they achieve near total naval superiority (which I promise I won't let happen), because if they don't have these three things (Midway, Hawaii, and naval superiority) I fail to see what they could do to substantially defeat the empire of Japan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timskorn Posted December 19, 2008 Share Posted December 19, 2008 Now you're thinking like Yamamoto! I admire your confidence though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blashy Posted December 19, 2008 Share Posted December 19, 2008 because if they don't have these three things (Midway, Hawaii, and naval superiority) I fail to see what they could do to substantially defeat the empire of Japan. Muwahahaha, just read my AAR vs. Colin... I intend to show him just that . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottsmm Posted December 19, 2008 Share Posted December 19, 2008 Timskorn, The truth is this game isn't totally to scale of what real history was, because if that was the case it would be impossible for Japan to win (unless of course the allies fell apart, or totally ignored the Asian/Pacific theatre). So I guess I'm thinking a bit like Yamamoto, but how else can I think If I playing as Japan, and of course want to win. Blashy, good luck, and out of all those three make sure that you have the third one for the entire game. If you don't have it your doomed for defeat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blashy Posted December 19, 2008 Share Posted December 19, 2008 It is impossible for Japan to win in this game... you can NOT defeat the enemy. All you can do is take as much land as you get, ramp up your MPPs and then plan how you will survive by holding key points until the end date and THAT is the victory, getting the Allies to agree to peace terms on equal grounds. SC2 ETO should be like that as well because there was NO chance Germany could defeat USA/USSR/UK. But they could have prepared for the onslaught and held on long enough to hold on to extra land and sue for peace and keep that land. I have a mode that does just that, much more realistic than the default one. I am so happy Bill went the realistic route for PTO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stitch Posted December 19, 2008 Share Posted December 19, 2008 It is impossible for Japan to win in this game... you can NOT defeat the enemy. All you can do is take as much land as you get, ramp up your MPPs and then plan how you will survive by holding key points until the end date and THAT is the victory, getting the Allies to agree to peace terms on equal grounds. QUOTE] In my first Japanese game I find this to be true. Barely won a tactical victory because it's hard to even take far flung enemy capitals/main cities and then hold them. I found Japan to be hampered by the lower research limit and the limited amount of ground troops using hard troop caps. (partisans ughh!) Even though I had won every US naval engagement, attrition had me down to 1 battleship and 6 carriers by end game. I could not stop island hopping nor the atomic bombs. I killed over 90 naval vessels, and yet the US had easily over 20 more ships to throw at me. I pretty much followed the historic Japanese strategy, and was executing it much better than they could hope. Even so, it barely pushed me over a stalemate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottsmm Posted December 20, 2008 Share Posted December 20, 2008 Stitch, not sure, but if you are new to the SC series you might want to consider going easy on yourself. A lot of the people on this site have become hardend vets, and can therefore do the impossible. Sometimes you shouldn't follow history, because this series is mainly what if's (that's what's great about having the editor to design your own mods). Knowing my like though your probably like me, and have gotten the SC games from another site (Amazon, ebay, etc) and just appear to be starting out in the SC war game series. Which by the way is often an advantage in multiplayer games . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abukede Posted December 22, 2008 Author Share Posted December 22, 2008 Okay... got to 44. Been a hell of a game so far... very enjoyable. I pushed hard in China and have split the country in 2. I discovered it's not a great idea to leave Peking unoccupied. Airpower (carefully nursed with improved anti-tank and overstrength) rules the day and eats up ground units. By killing Chinese HQs I've been able to roll over china for the most part. I have 2 Bombers, 3 Tactical and 3 Fighters pounding on China, UK and Austrailian troops in China. Moved the bulk of my fleet into the Indian Oceans... sent the british navy to the bottom with no losses. 2 BS, 1 CV, 1 CA and 2 Dests. Moved the navy back out... and up to Japan to restrength as the US arrived in Guam without any escort. I had moved my 2 special tactical wings (kamikazes) around Guam and moved my fleet within range. Next turn the US debarked amphibiously and I easily destroyed the HQ, corps and Arty. Placed a bomber, a fighter and a tactical air newly built on outer islands in hops of spotting US naval units. The next turn spotted a large portion of the allied fleet. My carriers are up to strength and I am moving to intercept them. I have been able to get some of the Japanese carriers up to airwing strength 12... thanks to bombarding chinese units. I think as long as I can see the enemy fleet and not be surprised by them I will do okay. The trick is not losing your carriers and keeping enough ground based airpower to assist you in as much destruction as possible. Been very fun so far. My only real complaint is the mobility in china (fixed by research), lack of strength in the island chain. Japan should really have 2 more corps in the pacific to give the allies a run for their money in island hopping. Been a lot of fun so far. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hubert Cater Posted December 23, 2008 Share Posted December 23, 2008 abukede, very glad to see you are enjoying the game Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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