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Gary Grigsby's Pacific War cheats / Gary Grigsby's Pacific War hints / Gary Grigsby's Pacific War faqs / Gary Grigsby's Pacific War solutions Gary Grigsby's Pacific War hints (The following update is due to the excellent BBS clarifications and comments from T.Holsinger and M. Ballwin) (All HOTKEYS are listed on the HELP MENU (press / or ?)). NOTE: The rule book and the game do not always agree. The rules were sent to the printers 4-6 weeks before the game was published. There have been hundreds of changes in that time and many of those are undocumented. There are also many undocumented changes AFTER the game was published. A. REPORTS SUBPHASE 1. Review battles (ALT/B). 2. Use SIGINT (F5). 3. Check losses/score (F9). 4. Check sunken ships (F8). 5. Check ship pools (F4). B. REINFORCEMENT SUBPHASE 1. Check for reinforcements. 2. Check replacement pools (F7). 3. Cycle through factories & upgrade planes (F6). C. HQ SUBPHASE 1. Examine HQ's (ALT/F). 2. List HQ units (ALT/D). 3. Relocate HQ's (ALT/E). 4. Move HQ's to TF in the same square (ALT/S). 5. Assign new leader to HQ's (ALT/L). 6. Set HQ control (ALT/K). 7. Change base HQ (ALT/C). 8. Set HQ target (ALT/G). 9. List HQ aircraft (ALT/X). 10. Assign HQ air leader (ALT/P). 11. Reinforce HQ (ALT/R). D. LAND SUBPHASE 1. Examine LCU's in sequence (S/W). 2. Divide LCU's (D on Unit Data Display). 3. Activate LCU's (A on Unit Data Display). 4. Assign leaders (F1 on Unit Data Display). 5. March LCU's overland (ALT/W). 6. Call for immediate sealift forces (ALT/T). E. AIR SUBPHASE 1. Check enemy AZOC's (ALT/Z). 2. Check friendly AZOC's (SHFT/Z). 3. Examine airfields in sequence (Z OR A). 4. Set priority target base (B). 5. Set missions. 6. Transfer air units (ALT/A). 7. Upgrade old planes (C on Air Unit Display). 8. Transfer aircraft factory control (ALT/N). F. TASK FORCE SUBPHASE 1. Examine ports in sequence (O OR P). 2. Examine existing TF's (N/G). 3. Unload TF's (U). 4. Replenish TF's (Y). 5. Transfer ships to new TF's (T). 6. Scuttle ships (S ON SHIP DISPLAY). 7. Disband TF's (R). 8. Check for isolated bases (ALT/O). 9. Create TF's to resupply isolated bases (C). 10. Create cargo TF's to resupply bases in rear areas (C). 11. Create replenishment TF's (C). 12. Create combat TF's at friendly ports (C). 13. Assign leaders to TF's (F1 on TF display). 14. Load TF's with troops, supplies, aircraft or fuel (L). 15. Set TF's destinations (D). 16. Set TF's functions/move options (F). 17. Reset TF's home bases as necessary (H). 18. Reset sub control (Computer/Human) as necessary (E). 19. Adjust submarine patrol locations (ALT/M). 20. Rebase all subs as necessary (ALT/M, R). 21. Remove TF's that complete their missions (ALT/Y). A. REPORTS SUBPHASE 1. REVIEW LAST TURN'S BATTLE REPORTS (ALT/B). a. Although all movement/action appears to be consecutive in the game during execution, it is actually concurrent for that week. Task Forces that appear to be in the same hex at the same time may NOT actually be in the same place, they may only be passing through that hex at different times during the week. Understanding this concept is critical for reducing frustration and increasing appreciation of the game. b. To move a little faster do not follow the screen combat, but rather wait until completion and use happened. c. When a base is captured all of the supply is lost but half of the fuel is captured. When a base is captured many of the ships in the port will escape into a Task Force (TF) and head for the nearest friendly base. The remaining ships will be destroyed in port. d. Moderate damage to a supply depot should destroy about 20% of the fuel and 20% of the supplies at the base. e. LCU's with HIGH ENTRENCHMENT levels will take few losses from air bombardment. Air strikes against entrenched LCU's can only hope for DISRUPTION (reduced readiness). Disruption is not indicated on the after action Combat Report. The rules on base disruption should read: Base Disruption is reduced to ZERO before the start of each Execution Phase. Bases that receive TWO levels of disruption may not be supplied by routine convoys (they will show up on the ISOLATED BASE display). A base will never exceed level 2 disruption. This is how to isolate an enemy base and make it more vulnerable to attack on the ground. f. The combat reports will usually have inflated claims of enemy units destroyed. Combat reports relate to the number of personnel killed. 1 squad = 10 men, 1 tank = 3 men and one gun = 5 men. g. The asterisks after a ship means additional penetration damage has been done to the ship. Each "*" means 20% damage has been done, so a "*****" means the ship is doomed. The periods seem to indicate the end of combat from that ship for that round. h. Land combat is rather strange sometimes. Look at the experience and readiness ratings of the Land Combat Units (LCU's). If both of those are low, not many squads will attack OR defend. 2. USE SIGINT TO REVIEW ENEMY TASK FORCES (TF'S), BASES, AND LAND COMBAT UNITS (LCU'S) THAT HAVE BEEN SPOTTED (F5). a. The information you receive by clicking an enemy TF is FREE SIGINT. However, not all enemy TF's will be displayed because only those TF's (randomly) detected by radio traffic will show up. TF's are also SPOTTED in the execution segment (if you watch on higher detail levels you will see which TF's are spotted). b. To use SIGINT put the cursor on an enemy port, TF or LCU and hit F5. Then hit the key corresponding to what you want to know about (P--Port, A--Airfield, R--Army, H--HQ, T--TF). 1) The best selections have been to ask about enemy HQ's, because sometimes you get a message that the HQ is planning an operation and what the target is (no dates). Use SIGINT to locate the important HQ's, then check on them each turn to see where they are targeting. Once you know an HQ's plans, you can count on it sticking to the plan for awhile and spend some SIGINT watching TF's that support that HQ. 2) Use SIGINT to check ports for task forces and troops. You can click on a TF and select SIGINT. Hit the 'T' and SIGINT may tell you where an enemy TF is heading, what it is carrying and the names of specific ships in the TF. c. The only way for the Japanese player to get intelligence on enemy bases is to attack them. Only the Allies can get info from SIGINT. d. The Japanese usually keep their CV's in support of their main effort. 3. CHECK LOSSES/SCORE (F9). 4. CHECK SUNKEN SHIPS (F8). 5. CHECK SHIP POOLS (F4). a. Page 24 of the rulebook states that excess ships will be returned to the pool after a unit is loaded. In this case the rulebook is wrong, the game was never programmed to do this. The game allows multiple ship units the OPTION of sending ships back to the pool or taking ships from the pool. The NUMBER of ships in a unit may be adjusted by moving ships into or out of the ship pool. The ship units may only alter their size while in a non-isolated port. The Ship Display will have (G)et Pool and (T)o Pool functions. (G)et Pool allows a ship unit to draw ships from the pool. The (T)o Pool function allows a ship unit to send ships back to the pool. CVE type ships may not use these functions. The normal limits for maximum ships in a unit will still apply. b. Ships in the pool are automatically allocated during the Routine Convoy Phase. Japanese Routine Convoys (RC's) originate in NAGOYA. Allied RC's originate in LOS ANGELES (LA) and from the map edge south of INDIA. All ships that participate in RC's will end their turn in Nagoya, Los Angeles or Calcutta. For ESCORTS to participate in RC's they must START their turn in Nagoya, LA or Calcutta. Ships that are used in RC's may not be used by the player that turn. BEWARE: escorts that are sent to one of the above cities will become unavailable to the player as long as they see RC action. The game allows escorts to be available for removal from RC duty during the first week of each month. c. The Commonwealth ships are colored differently than the U.S. ships in the ship pools. d. If ALL your MCS units are assigned to TF's then there will be no routine convoys. To keep MCS from being utilized for routine convoys, put them in a TF and park it. However, it's hard to find a way to use all your MCS in TF's. There is not much YOU can do with ships in the pool. These ships automatically flow into and out of MCS, AP, LST, (etc.) units as required. e. The routine convoy system should be sending supplies and fuel to bases with airgroups, HQ's, LCU's and ships (assuming that there no supply or ship shortage and that the bases are not isolated/disrupted). Bases with HQ's which are close to their target bases will generally acquire a lot more supplies, especially if multiple HQ's have the same target. Example: Johnston Island southwest of the Hawaiian Islands is the base HQ for the Japanese 17th Army. The 17th Army, Combined Fleet and South Seas Fleet all have a target base of one of the Hawaiian Islands. Johnston Island may receive as much as 6000 points of supplies in one convoy phase if it was low on supplies at the beginning of the turn. B. REINFORCEMENT SUBPHASE 1. CHECK FOR REINFORCEMENTS (IN SYDNEY, CALCUTTA, COLUMBO, KWEIYANG, KUNMING, SOERABAJA, AUCKLAND, AND MANILA IF ALLIED; IN TOKYO, SHANGHAI, AND PORT ARTHUR IF JAPANESE). a. Reinforcement ships are automatically activated if there are enough shipyard points. Ship production is affected by how many damaged ships you are repairing in port. More damaged ships in a port means less ship construction points to be used for new ships, so they may appear later or not at all. b. If under 'computer control', the artificial intelligence (AI) may 'temporarily disband' badly depleted air groups. These groups will show up as reinforcements on the next turn at San Francisco/Tokyo/Calcutta. If you have no use for these groups you can disband them. Their aircraft will go into the pool and the group will return as a reinforcement in six months. c. Ship and armor/artillery production is handled by the computer and cannot be changed. Armor/artillery can be affected by bombing or oil and resource shortage. d. British capital ships (carriers, battleships and cruisers) are periodically withdrawn from the Eastern Fleet. This may happen at any time before 1944. e. US CV's that are sunk return as Essex class, CVL's return as Independence class, CA's as Baltimore class, CL's as Cleveland class and DD's as Fletcher class roughly one year later as replacements. If the ships are not sunk they will not be replaced. f. If an HQ is destroyed, it's subordinate units should be assigned to another HQ. Most destroyed HQ's will return within a month at the player's home country. ABDA and Malaya AG will never return if they are destroyed. At least one of them is withdrawn automatically even if they aren't destroyed. Whether the Allied Player wants to preserve them depends on what the game date is and how he wants to have his new HQ PP (Preparation Points) distributed. g. Air groups that are at the base where reinforcements show up (Calcutta, San Francisco, etc.) may not build up very quickly. It may have something to do about the number of PP available, but move the land-based air (LBA) units to forward bases as soon as possible. They fill out nicely when moved to another base. Same principle with respect to LCU's. They fill out (get to their maximum size) very slowly at the reinforcement base, but grow rapidly at another base. h. British ground reinforcements get rerouted to Auckland if all other Commonwealth bases (such as Columbo) are captured. i. Ver 1.1x12 allows allied LCU's to come back 6 months after destruction and also eliminates delay of task force reorganization. 2. CHECK REPLACEMENT POOLS (F7). a. Replacement pool planes can be used to replace air groups with different planes. After clicking on an air group, use the CHANGE option to access the possible replacements from the pool. If the air group remains at a base with ample supply and the aircraft pool has the type of aircraft available for a particular group, it will gradually fill out (replacements). (As an example, you can always replace Hudsons and Sunderlands with Catalinas, but you cannot add new patrol squadrons until they show up at one of the reinforcement bases. Check Calcutta, San Francisco and Sydney to see if there are any reinforcements there.) Page 51 says land based air groups (LBA) can receive a maximum of 10 aircraft per group per turn as replacements. It is usually less. It can take a long time to build an air unit up to full strength. A table also shows the supply cost for each type of replacement. Air groups on remote islands will continue to take on replacement aircraft as long there are supply points to spend. b. The highlights on the planes don't mean anything, it was just used to make for easier reading. On the aircraft replacement display, every fifth line is highlighted to make it easier to read. The data space set aside for aircraft names did not allow completely spelling out of P-38F Lightning and SB2U Vindicator. c. Air groups in San Francisco and other reinforcement areas can be air transferred or shipped to different bases by ship. New air groups that enter at San Francisco or elsewhere often only start with 4 aircraft. Small groups of planes that show up may be reinforcments or the return of destroyed/disbanded air groups. New groups show up with 3-4 planes. What your factories are producing has nothing to do with what shows up. You may have a group of P-40s that show up in '43 when you do not have a single P-40 on the map or in production. They are now waiting for the P-47 to go into production so they can switch (meanwhile they are training). Put these groups on Training missions as soon as they arrive. Move the air groups to San Diego, Seattle, or Los Angeles if San Francisco gets above nine air groups. Be sure to put those units on training missions as they fill out. When they grow to 50 for Army fighters, 40 for Army bombers, and 30 for Navy/Marine air groups, load those groups on cargo ships and ship them to the bases you want them to operate from. Leave the new Allied air groups at the West Coast ports until they fill out. Use similar tactics in India and Australia also. d. Historically, the Marines converted most of their VMSB squadrons into VMTB squadrons during 1944. This happens in the game and may be reconsidered later versions. At this stage of the war, ground support was more important than bombing ships and Avengers were better in that role. Also, by 1944 American torpedo performance had improved dramatically. e. The Japanese Oil Reserve is displayed when you view the Aircraft Replacement Pools. To find out the OIL & RESOURCE levels press the F7 key - they are displayed at the bottom of the screen. Unless OIL & RESOURCE centers are isolated, the routine convoy system will automatically ship the entire production of those centers back to Japan every week. Supply and Fuel points are moved around on land automatically and slowly from hexes that have high levels to hexes that have low levels. Players have no control over this. As an example, the transportation links between India and Burma are almost non-existent. The supply movement through heavy jungle is very slow. Historically the Burma Campaign turned into a stalemate because neither the Japanese or British could keep a large force supplied in that area. 1) When oil production areas are reduced by bombing, they rebuild up to a maximum of 5. This creates a wildly unrealistic way for the Allied player to win the game; bomb Palembang early on and reduce its oil production from 45 to 5 for the rest of the game. This game feature is a major flaw which should be eliminated as soon as possible. Players should voluntarily refrain from exploiting it. Japanese players facing an Allied AI opponent should keep lots of fighters guarding Palembang. 2) Fuel IS transported directly from base to base during the Routine Convoy Phase but this is only done when the Oil Reserve falls below 3000. The way the rules are supposed to work (but might not) is: Heavy Industry consumes oil each week at a rate of 25 oil per heavy industry point. Oil reserves are converted into fuel (1 oil converts to 4 fuel). The fuel is used to stock the depots in Japan. Fuel is used whenever aircraft fly or ships move. If a city in Japan has fuel fall below 10,000 then 1000 will be subtracted from the oil reserve and 4000 will be added to the city's fuel depot. Forming TF's to do transport oil or resources is a waste of PP. Historically, the Japanese experienced an oil shortage AFTER they captured the oilfields and BEFORE the Allied subs started taking their toll. Keeping IJN TF's in port will NOT conserve fuel. It is a preset system for the most part. 3. CYCLE THROUGH FACTORY CITIES TO SEE WHICH PLANES ARE BEING PRODUCED AND UPGRADE TO NEWER MODELS WHEN APPLICABLE (F6). a. A NEW FEATURE, ALT/N CAN BE USED TO TOGGLE HUMAN/COMPUTER FACTORY CONTROL. IF YOU DO NOT WANT THE COMPUTER TO AUTOMATICALLY UPDATE YOUR AIRCRAFT PRODUCTION, SET IT TO HUMAN FACTORY CONTROL. b. New planes usually appear in San Francisco prior to the factory availability. When the F2M, B-29, and P-47 aircraft appear for the first time in San Francisco as air groups, with 4 aircraft in each group, they appear a month or so before they can be selected for production. If they show up you should be able to convert a factory in a month or so to produce them. c. If there are adequate supplies at a base and adequate numbers in the aircraft pool then your air groups should receive replacements. d. Air groups located in HUMAN CONTROLLED bases or ships will NOT automatically change their type. If under COMPUTER CONTROL, the computer automatically upgrades your air groups with new types of aircraft. The computer will follow a historical pattern in its upgrade decisions. The advanced models you see showing up in limited numbers are the prototypes of the new planes. When they show up, the factories will be able to produce them soon afterward. e. Even if your factories are under HUMAN CONTROL, the computer will still change aircraft at bases or TF's that are under a COMPUTER CONTROLLED HQ. f. The computer changes aircraft during the game in the most historical manner possible. The Wellington is the only British bomber that changes to Liberators. As for other British Tactical Bombers, the Blenheims will change into Beauforts. The Beauforts and Beaufighters will not be changed. g. The rules are wrong about the appearance date of the OHKAs. They become available in MARCH 1945. C. HQ SUBPHASE 1. EXAMINE HQ'S (ALT/F). a. Various Japanese Army HQ's are associated with a particular Naval HQ. When a combat TF is formed in a port controlled by a Japanese Army HQ it will ALWAYS be attached to the Combined Fleet. Japanese Combined Fleet HQ commands all surface combat, bombardment & air combat TF's. When a non-combat TF is formed, it will be attached to the Army HQ's associated Navy HQ. The 14th, 15th, 16th, and 25th Armies are associated with the Combined Fleet. The 17th Army is associated with South Seas Fleet. 2. LIST HQ UNITS (ALT/D). a. When an HQ is destroyed (such as ABDA or Malaya AG) the units subordinate to that HQ will automatically be transferred to another HQ. 3. RELOCATE HQ's (ALT/E). a. To relocate a land HQ (such as SWPAC), place the cursor on the NEW location. (The initial HQ location CANNOT be isolated.) Place the cursor on a target base (that is under SWPAC control), pull down the HQ menu, choose CHANGE BASE and then pick SWPAC. Next reselect the target base and pull down the HQ menu again and select RELOCATE HQ. The HQ will immediately move to its new destination. You can only move an HQ to a base it controls. If the HQ IS ISOLATED you can move the leader to a SWPAC base by putting him in charge of that base directly. (This is how historically MacArthur moved his SWPAC and the Asian Fleet HQ back to Australia from the Philippines.) b. You cannot move an ARMY HQ onto a TF because it cannot be located on ships. c. Japanese players should not try to shift an army HQ's geographic area of authority away from what it was historically. The game's AI routines will try to shift things back when on partial or full computer control. That wastes time and PPs. Do it only temporarily for the bases containing land units whose control you want to shift to a different HQ. d. The Japanese Combined Fleet HQ controls most major combat task forces (TF's) regardless of where they are formed. This means that placement of the Combined Fleet HQ is important. e. It is possible for a base to belong to more than one HQ, even if there are more than one HQ on the base. This can only occur if the HQ's are related to each other (such as the Japanese South Seas Fleet and the Japanese 17th Army). Only the AI seems able to do this. 4. MOVE HQ'S TO TF IN THE SAME SQUARE (ALT/S). 5. ASSIGN NEW LEADER TO HQ'S (ALT/L). a. There was a problem in early versions in that it was not possible to examine the leader of an HQ without losing the one you started with. This has been corrected. b. An HQ's leaders may gain experience. They gain it FASTER if they are NEARER to the action. Leader ratings will go up if they are involved in a lot of combat actions. There is a very small chance that a leader will be promoted (usually the losing commander gets the promotion). c. There are significant errors and possible bugs in the leader database. Some leaders are never available. Others are available only as base commanders and leave the game entirely if removed from control of that base (Admiral Matsunaga at Saigon in the 1941 campaign and Rising Sun scenario is an example - he was historically only a rear admiral then). Other leaders are listed incorrectly in the rules as being available 12/41 when in fact they are not due until much later. Also Dutch leaders are only available in ABDA bases and TF's with Dutch flagships. Another major problem is that in the beginning the Allied Central Pacific and South Pacific HQ's seem limited in the land leaders available to them; only Marine leaders and the historic and the US Army General Short. d. Press the space bar or click the right mouse button to display the 2nd page of leaders. 6. SET HQ CONTROL (ALT/K). a. When you run the HISTORIC first turn, all Allied HQ's are computer controlled and the human Allied player has NO control over what his HQ's or units will do on the first turn. The Japanese have surprise in almost every land and sea battle during the first turn even when not using the historic attacks. b. Carrier TF's ordered to attack ships in port will almost always ignore enemy TF's in the same hex. Carrier TF's ordered to attack enemy TF's will almost always enemy ignore ships in port in the same hex. It is not possible to order carriers to attack any ships at sea OR in port in a given spot. They will almost always only do one or the other. Sometimes they will do both but this is rare. Players seem to have little control over this. The best chance of hitting both seems to be to give a carrier TF a destination of the target hex, with a different home port, a target of ships in port and set its return orders to leader discretion. It might then remain on station and make reaction moves (maximum of one per turn) to nail an enemy TF that comes within its reaction range. c. The key to learning the game is to pick one HQ to run and set the others to full computer control. Gradually move the HQ's to operational control and set their objectives, etc. You may never want FULL player control for all HQ's. d. If an HQ is under 'Full Computer' or 'Computer Operational' control then the AI routines will automatically send reinforcement ships, planes and troops to the base where the HQ is located. Problems sometimes originate in changing HQ's from full human control to one of the two varieties of computer control. As an example, the US AI sometimes gets real excited about Wake Island if the Japanese does not capture it early. You may have to run Central Pacific Command (CenPac) on full human control in order to keep from making Wake the base HQ for CenPac, which can result in it transferring most of the Pacific Fleet and several LCU divisions to Wake. One solution may be to transfer control of Wake Island to ANZAC or SEAC. These HQ's do not care what happens to Wake. The Japanese Combined Fleet HQ has a similar fixation about Truk; it will continually attempt to protect it, or retake it, long after Allied forces pose greater threats closer to the Japanese Home Islands. And the US AI somehow absolutely refuses to defend Johnston Island. It seems to consistently disband any surface combat TF's sent there to protect the place, and remove airgroups based there. The only solution to this is to set whichever Allied HQ controls Johnston Island to full human control. Hopefully these significant AI problems will be corrected in later versions. e. If the HQ is under 'Computer Operational' control you can set the 'target' and the AI will automatically try to capture (or defend) the target. 7. CHANGE BASE HQ (ALT/C). a. One way to get more control of forces is to Change Base HQ from an undesirable HQ to a more desirable HQ, and only then begin creating TF's and activating LCU's under the control of that desired HQ. It may be necessary to change a Base HQ before changing that Base's control. 8. SET HQ TARGET (ALT/G). 9. LIST HQ AIRCRAFT (ALT/X). 10. ASSIGN HQ AIR LEADER (ALT/P). a. The HQ air leader should only be selected if their air rating is greater that the HQ commander. Air HQ leaders handle air missions for that HQ's bases. If your main HQ commander's air rating is as good or better than the air rating of the proposed air leader, do not utilize him. Generally an air rating seems to run back up the ladder to the HQ's commander level, so a local base leader's air rating are not REAL important. When in doubt, assign base leaders that have good air ratings in the hot air combat spots. 11. REINFORCE HQ (ALT/R). a. Only the HQ that is commanding your MAIN EFFORT should use REINFORCE HQ. b. The REINFORCE HQ routine will send ships and reinforcements to ANY non-isolated friendly base. D. LAND SUBPHASE 1. EXAMINE LAND UNITS IN SEQUENCE (S/W). a. LCU's automatically gain 1 experience point each turn until they reach 50. Units of PHIL, DUT and IND nationality and all engineer units only gain experience up to 25. CHIN units never gain experience in this manner. Anything under 50 experience is a BIG risk for LCU's attacking atolls. If the LCU's miss a leadership check (or even two) they are history if there are any decent Japanese on the island. b. The routine convoy system should provide enough supply to keep army units at 99 readiness. This assumes that the base is not ISOLATED. If Adelaide comes up as a isolated base it is a bug and should be ignored. c. There are no shore batteries in the game, though there may be in a future version. d. U.S. LCU's: Grey LCU's are Marines while white units are U.S. Army. e. When invading Japanese home islands watch out for 'militia'. ALL the Japanese home island bases will create new 'militia' units in their hex after the Allies take one. The only way to stop this from happening is to have enough LCU's in the port over a certain strength so the militia units do not form. As an example, the unexpected arrival of the Japanese LCU's at Sasebo indicates the presence of 'militia'. You must garrison bases in Japan to prevent the militia from retaking them. The militia can show up whether the base is garrisoned or not. The population of Japan never becomes passive. This is an undocumented feature. f. Shifting control of land units from one HQ to another is a cumbersome process. You can change the HQ commanding LCU's by changing the base HQ to the desired HQ with the ALT/C command, then activate the LCU's you want to be attached to the desired HQ. The land unit first has to be inactive. If the LCU is already activated, deactivate it with the activate command, then reactivate it with the same activate command. Always FIRST transfer control of the base the LCU is on to the desired HQ and THEN activate the unit, at which point it should show up as being attached to that HQ. Reinforcements must also FIRST be removed from the base where they arrived to do this, as they generally arrive at a RESTRICTED home area base HQ where base control cannot be changed. Failure to follow these guidelines will result in an HQ having units all over the Pacific and significantly reduce LCU's effectiveness in battle. 2. DIVIDE UNITS AS NEEDED (D ON UNIT DATA DISPLAY). a. Dividing an LCU will decrease its combat effectiveness. Prior to separating an LCU division, increase it to an oversized division. b. Fractional LCU's that are stacked with their parent LCU may recombine with them automatically during the supply phase. Another method to reassemble divided divisions is to load both pieces onto the same TF, then unload them somewhere or just leave them at the same base for awhile. They will recombine eventually. c. The NEW unit you create when dividing an LCU should only receive replacements when it fall below 30 squads while the parent unit (original cadre) builds back to full strength. d. Dividing Allied engineer units is especially effective. The replacements bring both old and new subunits up to workable size quickly. 3. ACTIVATE ALL LCU's THAT WILL BE LOADED, MOVED, OR THAT WILL ATTACK (A ON UNIT DATA DISPLAY). a. If there is a '$' sign next to the unit then it is NOT ACTIVATED. LCU's are automatically deactivated at the end of the execution phase. For them to attack enemy LCU's between the time you activated them and the end of the phase, several conditions must be met: there has to be enemy LCU's/bases in the same area, sufficiently high odds or have an aggressive leader assigned. To achieve numerical advantage, you need men, good troop quality and good readiness. If a LCU is under 50 readiness it probably will not attack. b. The Chinese LCU's are a good example of poor leadership and readiness. There is only one leader in China. You cannot change leaders there. Chinese HQ's are examples of the restricted HQ's. It costs 120PP to activate a division or army attached to that HQ. If your troop experience is less than 50, and you do not have a really good leader, your LCU's may be virtually useless (read p. 35 of the manual). c. Activated LCU's may still not attack if the odds are bad. However, if the LEADER passes an aggressiveness roll they will attack at any odds. If your leader is not aggressive AND has fails experience checks, then you may not have a sufficient advantage to initiate an attack. There are 3 leader rolls involved in each land combat. The failure to pass a leader roll when low quality LCU's are involved may result in the units 'failing to fight'. This would explain why a 52 squad LCU failed to fight in one battle and while only a 2 squad LCU fought in the next battle. d. If you activate LCU's while your HQ's are low in PP, your readiness will be halved, further curtailing your offensive firepower. You may activate LCU's without the necessary PP but you will lose half of the LCU's readiness in the process. This really hurts the Japanese ability to attack in China and is quite realistic. e. An attack by LCU's uses a number of PPs equal to the land leader's land rating. If there are not enough PPs, there may be no attack. This also hurts the Japanese ability to attack in China. If the "on the spot" commander fails an aggressiveness roll (random (10) less than aggressiveness), then he will be bypassed as commander and the commander of the controlling HQ will take charge of the hostilities. This means the leadership duties will shift up the chain of command. (See page 33, paragraph 4). f. To get the Japanese to retreat you need 125:1 odds. They are tenacious units, and this IS historical. They don't surrender. It is tough to get heavy damage in jungle when the effects are divided by NINE. g. Sometimes you may see only 2 squads attack or defend. Look closely at the 1st paragraph in column 2 on page 35. If the LCU fails both its experience check and its leader check then its readiness may be reduced to 1. This happens when poor LCU's are lead by poor commanders. h. Check the rules on page 41: Special Headquarters Movement Restrictions. LCU's subordinate to restricted HQ's (ANZAC, West Coast, China AG, Kwantung and Imperial GHQ) pay 10 times the normal activation cost. When activated, these units do not change their HQ. SOME LCU's may NOT be loaded onto ships. You can move the LCU's in their home country but they take x10 PP to activate. These rules are necessary in order to keep the Japanese from pulling all their forces out of China and Manchuria, and the Allies from pulling their "Home Defense" forces out of Australia and the U.S. i. At various times during the game, ANZAC LCU's will be transferred to the SWPAC HQ. To determine when ANZAC units have switched to SWPAC, click on the LCU as if you were going to activate it and look at the HQ's they are attached to. If it is ANZAC, the LCU is tied up in home defense duties. If it is SWPAC, the LCU is released to go fight outside their home country. To ensure the ANZAC LCU's transfer occurs, you may need to put the Southwest Pacific HQ under computer control for one turn (either operational or total control). You will need to do this each time an ANZAC LCU is scheduled to be transferred to SWPAC. (Until ANZAC releases LCU's, take a division from Central Pacific Command, break it into smaller units, and use them to garrison the Solomons and New Guinea.) When an ANZAC LCU activates it will switch to SWPAC control and may arrive as a reinforcement in Sydney. Listed below is the ANZAC transfer schedule: 1) Apr 42 1st AUS Engr. 2) May 42 7th AUS Inf Div. 3) Sep 42 6th AUS Inf Div. 4) Nov 42 9th AUS Inf Div. 5) Jul 43 3rd NZ Inf Div. 6) Aug 43 8th NZ Inf Bde. j. In the last year of the war the Japanese started transferring divisions out of China and Manchuria for use in the Western Pacific. The divisions transferred out of China will show up in Shanghai (probably attached to 14th or 35th Army). The divisions transferred out of Manchuria will show up in Port Arthur. k. When an LCU is ACTIVATED it will become attached to the same HQ that controls the base. This is not true for LCU's that are attached to RESTRICTED HQ's (such as ANZAC). l. Inactive LCU's will always DEFEND in land combat. Activating in LCU does not help its performance while defending. m. A computer controlled HQ may activate some of your LCU's. n. Engineers DO NOT need to be activated in order to build airfields and ports. o. The gung-ho 1st Marine Division is influenced by a 'minor' bug which keeps the LCU active. p. LCU's can receive a maximum of 20 squads per turn as replacements if not isolated. Thus if a division takes 50% losses in combat it will take 6 weeks to rebuild it to full strength. q. Look at the type of terrain enemy LCU's are in. Heavy jungle and jungle terrain reduce bombardment effects drastically, so does entrenchment level. Japanese jungle defense is really hard to beat. Weekly air strikes also do not impact much on jungle defenders. To destroy Japanese LCU's you need lots of experienced LCU's, air strikes and shore bombardments. If the enemy units drop to a readiness of 9-15% they are being affected. Do this turn after turn and you will see the odds climb until the magic 125:1 odds shows up and the defender will be gone. Another secret to getting Japanese troops out of the jungle is to cut their line of supply. This usually requires a surface combat TF on station in the hex. It does not have to be a good TF, use PT's or DD's or CA's when enemy air is around. Once their supply is cut, 3 or 4 divisions under a good leader can usually get 125:1 odds in 3 or 4 turns. r. If your LCU's have gotten into a battle with enemy units, you CANNOT change their controlling HQ's UNTIL they have captured the enemy base. When you capture the base, an HQ is selected by the computer. The HQ that is selected by the computer for the base is the same as the one the lowest numbered LCU (in the game's database) is attached to. The captured base gets assigned to that HQ at the end of combat phase. Next turn, if you check your units, they will still have DIFFERENT controlling HQ's. What you can do is look at the captured base, decide which HQ's the base should belong to, change BASE HQ if necessary, and then activate the LCU's to get them all assigned to that HQ. s. After combat or movement, you can activate a unit again to return it to an inactive status. You can use that technique just after capturing a base. This makes LCU's have the same appropriate HQ's. If the enemy is still in a base hex, after you capture the base, you can activate your LCU's to turn these units back to inactive status so they can dig in and wait for the supplies to roll in and restore their readiness. t. It appears that only the experience rating of the land unit on the top of the stack in a hex is used for the experience check at the beginning of a land combat phase. If a unit with a low experience rating is on top of the stack, its experience rating will be used no matter how good the other units in the stack are. As an example, the British player should always arrange his forces so that a unit with an experience rating over 50 is on the top of any stack that is going to fight the Japanese. It also means that divisions will always be higher in stacks than non-divisional units, because their database ID #'s are lower. 4. ASSIGN LEADERS TO LAND UNITS (F1 ON UNIT DATA DISPLAY). a. If there are LCU's belonging to various HQ's at a location and there is no onsite leader then the leader will be chosen randomly from among the represented HQ's. b. Allied land leaders cannot command an amphibious assault - only the naval leaders of transport TF carrying the attacking troops can affect the initial landings. If enemy resistance continues then an Army/Marine commander can be assigned to the base on the following turn. Japanese HQ commanders command the troops making amphibious assaults (the aggressiveness of the Japanese naval leader commanding the transport TF is vital in determining whether the TF turns back under air attack though). c. Both Japanese and Allied leaders have an equal chance of becoming casualties. Leaders that are wounded in action will be unavailable for 6-12 months while recuperating. The game system seems to inflict unusually high losses on friendly leaders from friendly air attack on enemy LCU's in the same hex, so be careful. d. To see the available leaders, check the land units under the control of each Allied HQ by pressing W on a ground unit under the control of each HQ and then press F1. Press the space bar to see more leaders if the screen is full. e. Your HQ leaders should have the highest land ratings available. This also includes naval HQs. Your TF and base commanders should have high aggressiveness ratings so they will contribute more often to the conduct of a particular battle. This is especially true for carrier TF commanders; Halsey with an aggressiveness of 9 is far more useful as a carrier TF commander because he will contribute his 7 air rating to carrier battles 90% of the time, as opposed to 60% of the time for the next best Allied carrier leaders, Mitscher and Spruance. As an example, almost always appoint Kinkaid as commander of the South Pacific (SoPac), with Fitch or McCain as his air leader, in lieu of Halsey. Kinkaid has a land rating of 4 to Halsey's 3. If you keep Halsey as SoPac commander, you should not have a SoPac air leader. Halsey is the best air leader the US has. 5. MARCH LCU's OVERLAND (ALT/W). a. Marching (or retreating) to another base requires the LCU to start with at least a 50 readiness. b. LCU's may not move from a hex containing enemy units to another hex or base controlled by the enemy (whether or not the latter contains any LCU's) unless they have 125-1 superiority in the hex they are leaving. c. You also cannot march an LCU from an enemy occupied/controlled base to an enemy controlled/empty base and capture it. CURRENTLY LCU's can ONLY march to a connected location IF either the starting OR ending location is FREE OF ENEMY LCU's. d. The game system fosters holding attacks. Moving a LCU into a hex containing enemy units pins them down there. An AI group"of enemy LCU's dug in on a large island with march paths, like Rabaul or the Philippines, can resort to sneaky tactics to force base hopping. After you obtain a toehold base with 7-8 friendly LCU's, the AI opposition may retreat one turn to another base, then advance back 1 or more units effectively preventing your advance. To prevent this, invade behind the AI forces to pin them down and prevent retreats and/or end-of-turn advances. e. The marching paths in New Guinea are not exactly correct. Some parts of the island must have amphibious assaults to get to bases. Many New Guinea bases can be reached by marching from one to another. You cannot march to an enemy occupied base if there are enemy units in the base where you are trying to march from. 6. CALL FOR IMMEDIATE SEALIFT FORCES (ALT/T). E. AIR SUBPHASE 1. CHECK WHICH ENEMY BASES ARE EXERTING AIR ZONES OF CONTROL (AZOC) (ALT/Z). a. Each time an undetected TF enters an enemy AZOC it will trigger searches and attacks by all enemy air groups in range. This point is very important because of the way TF Preparation Points (PP) work. The best way to drive off an amphibious invasion is to hit the transport TF carrying the LCU's with as many separate airstrikes as possible, because each airstrike reduces the TF's PPs by 9. A transport TF reduced to few or no PP will likely retire or fail to unload. The airstrikes need not be strong; what counts is making them numerous. This means that you should spread your airgroups around on multiple bases within a small area, preferably each with a bomber and a fighter squadron (tactical, dive or torpedo bombers preferred), and with a Patrol squadron covering them all. If the HQ for that area does not have an air leader, assign local leaders with air ratings of 3+ to each such base. You'd be surprised how effective Allied airpower can be in defending Malaya, Java and Sumatra from Japanese invasions in this fashion in 1941 and early 1942. The counter to this is to reduce or eliminate the AZOC's with massive airstrikes (6+ bomber and fighter squadrons in a single raid) or naval bombardments by surface combat or bombardment TF's with 4+ heavy cruisers or better. It may be necessary to pound defending airbases in this fashion for several turns before a transport TF can get through. The weakness of this air defense tactic is that you need really strong airstrikes from a single base to hurt enemy combat TF's. Those rarely turn back under air attack. It is difficult to hurt enemy combat TF's if you spread your airpower around on multiple bases to maximize the number of strikes to reduce amphibious transport TF PPs. b. Air Combat TF's will only cancel enemy AZOC if THEY ENTER THEM. The AZOC will be cancelled AFTER the Air Combat TF triggers any reaction combat or movement. As an example, in order to perform an effective amphibious assault in an enemy AZOC, you may need to send a Combat Air TF to the enemy base and set the STANDOFF RANGE to ZERO. This may (but might not) CANCEL the enemy AZOC. Your transport TF's might then follow and may be immune to reaction air strikes. Of course, your carriers will have to withstand the full brunt of enemy airpower. c. After an enemy naval force retires they can no longer be targeted by aircraft in the normal combat phase - they may only be subjected to reaction attacks as they move towards their home port. 2. CHECK WHICH FRIENDLY BASES ARE EXERTING AZOC (SHFT/Z). a. If you have good air cover in an area, any enemy TF's entering your air zones of control (AZOC) will have a good chance of running into any reaction forces you have sitting in port. Repeated bombing of a base will reduce the effectiveness of it's AZOC. A group of aircraft may not be enough to generate a AZOC at a disrupted base. Try moving more bombers to the base and see if a AZOC appears. AZOC exerted by TF's are not shown (either friendly or enemy). Only LBA AZOC are displayed. b. All TF's are much more vulnerable to enemy aircraft, both from carriers and land bases, when they are not covered by friendly Patrol squadrons' AZOC. c. The most important aircraft in the game are the patrol (reconnaissance) bombers. Patrol planes do not do anything but patrol. Just move them to a supplied base and they will start to patrol. They locate enemy TF's, reduce the effectiveness of enemy submarines and greatly enhance the effectiveness of combat aircraft on bases containing the Patrol units (apparently including air defense). You should IMMEDIATELY move a Patrol air unit onto any newly conquered base. It will then exert AZOC as well as providing targeting information concerning enemy TF's. d. Fighters DO NOT exert an AZOC but fighter-bombers DO. However, friendly fighter AZOCs DO cancel enemy bomber AZOCs. e. There is a fresh reaction roll everytime an enemy TF enters a new AZOC. Keep in mind that bases exert more than one AZOC, depending on the type of aircraft. A base with patrol, tactical bomber and fighter aircraft exerts three, not one, AZOC, though only the patrol AZOC will appear on the screen. This means that it helps to have more but weaker airbases exerting different types of AZOC around a carrier TF that you want to have make a reaction move. f. Enemy fighter AZOC, both from land bases and carrier TF's, can negate friendly AZOC. 3. EXAMINE AIRFIELDS IN SEQUENCE (Z OR A). a. The most important step in improving air bases is to get it from size 1 to size 2 (using an engineer unit). This changes a base which can only handle one patrol squadron to a base which can handle two fighter, fighter-bomber, dive or torpedo bomber squadrons plus a patrol squadron. The next is from a size 3 to size 4, because that lets tactical and heavy bombers operate there. Building bases up to an airfield level of 4 allows you to stage bombers from the U.S. to Australia, and points in between, by successive air transfers from base to base. Also, the bigger the base the more aircraft that are active in your squadrons. b. The larger the airfield rating of a base, the harder it will be to destroy aircraft at that base. The high airfield rating implies MORE air strips and a better ability to disperse the air groups. c. The engineer construction rate of airfields is unpredictable. Some airfield levels may increase from two to six in eight weeks while other bases with more engineers, supply, and better terrain may take up to three to four months. The key is to have 1000 supply points available for construction. d. The maximum size for a land based fighter group is fifty aircraft. e. The big-wigs in the Pentagon plan to send all B-17s to Europe starting late 1942. 4. SET PRIORITY TARGET BASE (B). a. To set a priority air target, hit 'B' while on a friendly airbase. The screen should then show up that asks to click on an air target, or hit 'C' to cancel a previous air target. That should remove old air targets. 5. SET MISSIONS (D, N, NI, SA, OA, AB, T, D ON AIR UNIT DISPLAY). a. When viewing air groups, following the group name/number there is a designation in parentheses such as (D-USA) or (T-USMC). The T designates a Training unit and only holds four aircraft each. The "D" stands for Day Combat, "NI" stands for Naval Interdiction, and so on. Each AIR MISSION has a letter code. When you see (D-USMC) at the top of the air group display the 'D' stands for DAY mission (T=Training, N=Night, etc.). b. You are not required to set a group's air mission. All groups will start with a mission already set - usually Day Combat. If nothing is next to the air group data on the display then the group has a Day Combat mission. An air group will remain active and perform it's assigned mission every turn without spending PPs every turn. c. If you set tac-bombers or attack planes (not fighters) to Naval Interdiction, they will intercept spotted TF's that are in range IF they have enough supply and fuel to do so. Air groups with Naval Interdiction missions should only attack naval targets. EXAMPLE: a carrier has F4Fs, SBD's and TBF's - if the SBD's have an NI mission then only the F4F's and TBF's would be allowed to attack an airfield. The TF's target priorities would not override this. You can control this somewhat when CV's launch planes. Set the reaction range to 1 or 2 after giving them a destination, and they won't attack until within that range. American and Japanese ARMY bombers will not attack ships unless they have a Naval Interdiction mission. Bombers with NI missions should perform reaction attacks against enemy TF's that enter nearby AZOC. d. When torpedo bombers and Bettys attack from MAXIMUM range they will carry bombs instead of torpedoes. This does not apply to TBD's (Avengers). e. Air groups with Training missions will not perform any combat. They should be moved to the rear areas. f. There is no reason to put patrol aircraft, such as seaplanes, on Night missions. g. With the exception of HEAVY BOMBERS, land based bombers are reluctant to fly daylight missions against targets defended by CAP unless they have a fighter escort or very good. The mission may get scrubbed. On LBA attacking TF's: the airbases need several things to detect, locate and attack a TF. First, they need to be well supplied with supplies AND fuel. When the gas is gone, they don't fly! Second, the airbases need to be protected from enemy airstrikes. (Those 2 **'s behind the name of a base means severe air disruption, reducing all flights from that base.) Third, a patrol group is critical. The more patrol groups that can see an enemy TF, the greater chance there is that LBA will attack them. Fourth, of course, you need planes that will attack TF's. Tac-bombers will do it, but naval airgroups (dive and torpedo bombers) do the best job. Fighters will perform sweeps over enemy TF's and will strafe non-combat units, and tac-bombers will occasionally attack, but dive bombers have the best accuracy rating. A good HQ leader is useful to keep the reinforcements coming, too. h. At close range (2-3 hexes) the air bases put up a few fighters (4-8) over any TF. If you do not want fighters to move away from their airfield, put them on naval interception (NI) missions. Fighters may provide CAP over the base. Fighters will not strafe/attack COMBAT TF's. The only mission they will perform, other than CAP, is strafe/attack are NON-COMBAT TF's. i. Transport aircraft, at a well supplied base, can airdrop supplies to ALL undersupplied units. They can supply up to two times their normal aircraft travel distance. Transport aircraft can airdrop supplies up to their maximum allowable distance to LCU's (to increase their readiness up to 49%) located with an enemy unit. This is handy as long as you can neutralize the AZOC. Transport aircraft will not drop supplies into an area covered by an enemy fighter AZOC. Transport aircraft supply function is controlled by the computer. The combat system in Pacific War required that aircraft ordnance be automatically selected by the computer according to range/type of target. Japanese NAVAL bombers are better off attacking ships with torpedoes so the computer ALWAYS selects this weapon. Japanese transport aircraft that may show up on the Allied side may be the result of the 'data contamination' bug. Version x12 in the Library is intended to fix that bug. j. Changing an air group's mission requires PPs. If you do not have enough PPs, the mission can be changed but all the aircraft in the group become damaged. k. Fighters over their own bases perform almost 3 times as effectively in kill rates. l. Night mission bombing allows one to attack strategic targets without encountering swarms of daylight interceptors. The flak is halved and CAP is limited to those fighters assigned Night missions. You can reduce supply capability to Rabaul (neutralize it) by the use of night bombing with B-17s. Night raids by large numbers of B-29s can cause terrific damage to the Japanese cities late in the war. The Japanese can also use well trained Betty groups (experience 80+) to attack Allied TF's at night and avoid CAP. m. Army Air Groups will not attack LCU's if they have an NI mission. Set your airfield target priority to Ground Attack to guarantee that bombers will attack LCU's. Aircraft do not have their range multiplied x1.5 when attacking LCU's. See the data card comments for page 21. n. The higher the experience level of your air groups the better they perform. If your experience is below 70 you will not do very well. Try putting some of those groups on training missions in your rear areas, or don't deploy the groups to the battle area until they have a 75 - 80 experience rating. Taking losses may also keep your experience down as you receive replacements. o. Airgroups can attack supply depots and airfields within 150% of their rated range but can attack LCU's and task forces only within their normal rated range. This means that a Lily with a range of 4 can attack supply depots and airfields at ranges of 6 but LCU's only at a range of 4. Note that it is almost impossible to bombard the US supply depot on Bataan with aircraft unless their bases are out of normal range. There are usually so many US LCU's in Bataan that the program will have all airgroups attack the LCU's rather than the supply depot no matter what the base target is. This means that 4-hex range Lilys must be based on Formosa (Takao or Chilung) if you want them to attack the Bataan supply depot, with Sallys being based on Okinawa. Hopefully this problem will be corrected in a future version. p. Zero fighters have a range of 6 while most Japanese tactical bombers (naval Bettys & Nells, Army Sallys & Helens) have ranges of 5-9. The most effective anti-shipping weapons are land-based air (LBA) units - the US SBD Dauntless dive-bomber and the Japanese G4M Betty tactical bomber. Dive-bombers are the most accurate anti-shipping planes (accuracy 9) and SBDs can deliver the devastating 1000 lb. bomb at 2 hexes range or a 500 lb. bomb at 3 hexes range. Bettys have a range of 9 hexes, an accuracy of 7, and can sometimes carry torpedoes. American SBD dive-bombers using 1000 lb. bombs can really hurt Japanese battleships. Battleship TF's seem excessively powerful in this game so it is essential for the Japanese to sink most of the old US ones at Pearl Harbor on the first turn. Large battleship TF's have high anti-aircraft ratings which greatly reduces the effectiveness of air raids. US battleships are almost invulnerable to Japanese 250 kg. (550 lb.) bombs. Torpedoes are more effective but torpedo bombers are exceptionally vulnerable to AA fire. Vals and Kates can attack at 4 hexes range only with 250 kg. bombs. Val divebombers always use 250 kg. bombs. Kates use torpedoes at ranges 0, 1 & 2 but 250 kg. bombs at range 3. Japanese planes do have a longer range than the US planes and will keep this advantage throughout the war. All TAC-BOMBERS in the game that attack with BOMBS are assumed to be skip-bombing. The aircraft accuracy of all TAC-BOMBERS is the same. Thus a B-25 and a Betty both have a ship attack accuracy of 7. The Type 99 No.80 Mk.3 HC bomb was the Japanese Navy's heavy "General Purpose" bomb. This bomb was used throughout the Pacific. The Type 99 No.80 Mk.5 AP bomb was used only at Pearl Harbor and was replaced with the redesigned Type 2 No.80 800kg AP bomb in 1942. 800kg bombs also added in version X14 and X15, making contact with the IJN more risky. The IJN planes will use torpedoes if they can carry them and if the range is advantageous to use them, but at very close ranges (1-5 hexes) they will carry 800 kg bombs (if possible) about 50% of the time. q. Air squadrons from your base fight in the order that they are listed at the base: first squadron A fights the enemy, than B, then C, etc. As an example, Allied squadrons are ordered in the following manner: USMC Ftr, USMC Bomber, USAAF Ftr, USAAF Bomber, Commonwealth Ftr, Commonwealth Bomber What does this mean? If you put USMC bombers with Commonwealth fighters, for example, the fighters will not protect the bombers: the enemy does not have to fight through your Commonwealth fighters to get to the USMC bombers because they see them straight away. q. Set fragile Bettys to NI (naval interdiction) missions to keep them from hitting defended enemy bases and taking horrible losses. r. After the poor performance of level bombers vs ships early in the war the Japanese lost confidence in this form of weapons delivery. Late in the war, big WARHEADS are factored into twin engined kamikaze aircraft. s. ARMY pilots have their experience modified when attacking ships. Their experience rating is squared and then divided by 100. Thus the LOWER an ARMY-AIR GROUP'S experience the greater the loss of effectiveness in attacking naval targets. IJN, RN, USN and USMC air groups do not have their experience modified for attacking ships. 6. TRANSFER AIR UNITS (ALT/A). a. Adding a patrol air group to an airfield should not count toward the maximum allowable number of units. As an example, a level four airfield can have four air groups, not counting transport or patrol planes, and each air group can have up to forty undamaged active aircraft. But if there are already four air groups at the airfield, you cannot add another non-patrol/transport airgroup (even if all four of the others are patrol/transport). In order to add a non-patrol/transport air group, move out one group to reduce the number to three, transfer the non-patrol/transport group to the airfield and then bring back the patrol/transport unit. This appears to apply with all sizes of airfields. b. The only aircraft that can be based at a size 1 airfield are Patrol types. c. Air groups may be moved around within China (those bases attached to China Exp. Force). However, air group may not transfer OUT OF or INTO China or Manchuria. Any airgroups sent to China or the Kwantung Army can't come out unless you move them with PW Reports. Also, air groups in China and Manchuria will not be allowed to disband. Keep your air groups out of the China and Kwantung areas or you will lose control of them. This is not really a bug, but a necessary side effect of the restricted HQ functions. d. Only heavy bombers and patrol bombers can fly directly to Oahu from San Francisco (SF), so if you have maxed out Oahu already, only the patrol planes will be allowed to go there. Move some planes from Oahu to the other islands, then try again. If the heavy bombers are not transferring, look at the size of the airport they are going to. A size of 4 or greater is needed to put the heavies there. The shorter ranged planes (Dauntless, P-40, etc.) must be loaded on a MCS or CS type ship to move across the big ocean gaps. They will show up as damaged at their new port when the TF gets there, but repair quickly. CS type ships will unload the planes and have them ready to go immediately. e. You can only get the nuclear mission as the Allies, and only starting in August 1945. f. You cannot split squadrons or remove air groups from CVs. 7. UPGRADE OLDER PLANE TYPES (C ON AIR UNIT DISPLAY). a. It is not possible to disband all the air units in China and have them reappear in Tokyo 6 months later for reassignment, nor is it possible to reequip them with biplanes to free up more modern types for the force pool. b. You may not want to convert all of your Japanese carrier fighter aircraft A6M2 Zeros to A6M5 Zeros when they become available in 1943. The A6M5 Zeros are fighter-bombers. When they bomb airfields or TF's, the A6M5 may suffer horrendous losses due to flak. The A6M5 may be only an adequate bomber when attacking units with minimal flack protection. A6M2s are also fragile, are more prudent vs. ground targets. They are fine for defensive purposes if you are not doing well. You should keep one AC TF equipped with A6M2 for offensive purposes. You should also keep some ground based squadrons of A6M2s. Otherwise, Bettys and Peggys will attack TF's without escorts during reaction air strikes. 8. TRANSFER AIRCRAFT FACTORY CONTROL FROM COMPUTER TO HUMAN OR VICE-VERSA (ALT/N). a. Alt/N can be used to toggle HUMAN/COMPUTER factory control. If you do not want the computer to automatically update your aircraft production, set it to HUMAN FACTORY CONTROL. b. Players should shift the production numbers of each type on an as needed basis while keeping at least one factory producing some of each type. There will be times when a given type is taking exceptionally heavy losses and its replacement pool shrinks dangerously so it is important to keep one of each type in production. c. Do not transfer all Japanese fighter production to Zeroes (a Navy fighter), even though the Japanese Army fighter designs are inferior until late 1942. The Japanese Army fighter squadrons will not re-equip with Zeroes and will gradually vanish due to attrition. d. Do not terminate production of the Japanese twin-engine Ki-45 Nick fighter-bomber in favor of the Ki-34-I Oscar fighter either. This is because of the game's use of air bases. Fighters, fighter-bombers, torpedo bombers and dive bombers are the only combat aircraft which may be based on size 2 and 3 airfields. The Japanese have only one land-based torpedo bomber squadron from December 1941 through about May 1942, and no land-based dive bombers (the US has lots of land-based Marine Corps dive-bomber squadrons). The only way the Japanese can attack ships and ground units from size 2 and 3 airfields from December 1941 through May 1942 is with the Ki-45 Nick fighter-bomber. This makes a difference for Japanese AZOC. Fighters DO NOT exert an AZOC but fighter-bombers do. This is the ONLY redeeming virtue of the US P-39 Aircobra, and then only early in the war before many USMC SBD dive-bomber squadrons become available. F. TASK FORCE SUBPHASE 1. EXAMINE PORTS IN SEQUENCE (O OR P). a. In Campaign 41 or the Rising Sun Campaign, when you decide not to use the historical first move, there is a chance that some of the US Fleet at Oahu will put to sea. b. Look at the port of Los Angeles (LA) or Nagoya to see the ships used in routine convoys. If you access the port display, and see a # sign next to a transport ID, this means that transport is being used for routine convoy duty that turn and will be unavailable for any missions. If you want to verify this, access target base (B), you will see a one turn delay next to it. A delay flag is set to prevent it from being added to a TF. When a port is expanded it may receive more supplies during routine convoy supply and TF's based at large ports will receive more PP. Ports with HQ's present also receive additional supplies during the routine convoy phase. The maximum fuel/supply level at a base is 50,000. The routine supply situation is dependent on who the HQ leader is. If your HQ's is not receiving routine supply, consider changing leaders. Routine supply seems to take into account the HQ, the level of supply currently at the base and the MCS units in routine convoys. Obviously all bases can not receive routine supply each turn. Make sure to have lots of MCS in LA and you may receive routine convoys with supply. c. The Preparation Point Allocation System is very complicated. It is vital to be aware that HQ Preparation Points (PPs) are not the same as TF PPs. They are considerably different. Read page 32 of the manual VERY carefully. Unused HQ PPs are accumulated from one turn to the next, subject to an upper limit for each side (and each HQ) which seems to vary according to game date. Unused TF PPs are NOT, repeat, NOT, accumulated from one turn to the next. While HQ PPs are sometimes transferred to TF's, this is rarely (if ever) done on a one HQ PPs to one TF PPs basis. PPs are allocated to TF's at the start of each EXECUTION PHASE. TF's will always have ZERO PP during the ORDERS PHASE. ALL task forces, including Cargo TF's, use PPs. You CANNOT see how many PPs the TF has been allocated. Disbanding TF's will save PPs for the HQ's that is listed on the TF's display. Disbanding a TF will PREVENT the TF's HQ's from spending PPs on the TF at the start of the EXECUTION PHASE. The PPs number seen when clicking on a port is the PPs for HQ's commanding the port. The first and last TF PPs assignment rules are key, especially t Other Gary Grigsby's Pacific War cheats hints faqs solutions: |