Tips for playing as japan?

[Mezomorto]

I have tried to send 3(modern) CA 1CL and 3 (modern) DD's. But when on a VS 2 CA 2 CL 2 DD's, half of my ships sink (but I destroy the TF) and when a landing force comes, the islands have no defence. I really need tips for defence and prevent landings from USA.
Edit: I used subs but It didn't change much.

[byepopejoy]

I suggest you start with an aircraft carrier (CV), Tone and Chikuma, and a few destroyers.

• Use float planes from Tone and Chukuma, some Zeroes from your CV, and all available land-based aircraft to search for enemy transports and CVs. Zeroes should attack any enemy scouts they find. Keep a small CAP (2-4 aircraft) to kill scouts that approach your CV.
  
• Focus your CV air group on sinking transports and CVs. A raid by 12 Kates on a standard MS troop convoy that attacks three MS will sink one or two MS and leave the other(s) with "heavy" damage; finish any damaged MS off with Vals. Two Kate raids and a Val raid will generally finish off all the transports in a convoy.
  
• If you find a CV, send in a Kate raid, followed by Val raid, will all aircraft going after the CV. That will usually do it. Don't forget to send along Zeros to help deal with any CAP you encounter.
  
• Send supplies, equipment, & oil to Shortland as soon as you can to build up its port to "3" status so it can rearm your ships and replace losses from your CV air group rather than having them sail all the way back to Rabaul.
  
• Buy the second CV as soon as you can. With a second CV you have enough aircraft to form 24 plane raids and can start taking on battleships and cruisers while still having enough aircraft to go after the transports.
  
• Don't buy Japanese CL unless you have already bought all the CV, BB, and CA.

[Karolus Rex]

My best plays with Japan have so far been :

1. Create a convoy with some troops (mainly in 2x DD's and 1x CL). I build an airfield at New Georgia first with VAL (easier now with less costs).

2. In the same convoy, supplies and troops for a basic airfield and protection on Guadalcanal.

3. Send out recon planes (single zeros in a pattern from an airfield) every couple of hours.

4. Soften up any force you are engaging with Betty's and VAL's first. Betty's with 800kg bombs, bomb along the line the ships are travelling at high altitude. 2x planes per ship gives maybe around 30% hit rate in my experience. VAL's attack from 45 degree angles and behind. 4x for a big ship, 2x for a small one like a DD or transport.

5. Attract the US navy into the islands where you can ambush them. Best bet is to get very close to them before the engagement starts, launch torpedoes at them as soon as possible (from around 6km), even if they miss they may break up the formation.

6. Focus fire on the big ships first, literally fire everything you have at one heavy cruiser until it is on fire and damaged, then start switching to the second one with some ships. Get some of the heavy guns out the fight as soon as possible. once heavy ships are on fire, start setting your screens on enemy screens whilst the big ships still engage.

7. Use a Battleship! They are incredibly powerful against heavy cruisers, even the cheapest ones. Try to have 7 ships in a battle fleet, 3 capital, maybe 4 if you can afford.

8. Concentrate your force. Don't spread too thin. I avoid the southern oceans completely at the start since the US usually deploys a CV there and you don't have as much capability to ambush the enemy ships.

9. Find convoys with planes or single DD scouts. Use submarines to ambush and use planes to harass. Focus on the cargo ships first. intercept them early, before they even get close to landing. If they land, constantly have combat ships deliver troops and a small supply convoy to assist them. Get your convoy close behind air/sea cover and move in at night to deploy them. Focus everything you have on a convoy, bomb them with planes, sink with submarine wolfpacks (3 or 4 subs). Volley fire with subs with 8* spread can be extremely powerful against a convoy of transports or combat ships from close (< 3000m). Even if you don't sink, you slow them down, damage modules, reduce their combat effectiveness etc.

10. Send Zeros's to take out scout planes, if they get shot down they need to be rearmed at base. If they are gone the enemy will have a harder time finding you.

11. Most Japanese ships I find are inferior to the US and even UK ones. Avoid combat with ships at long range and soften them up first. Try to get heavy ships out of the fight first. I've sort of mentioned this before, but it is really important.

12. Again: RECON IS ALL IMPORTANT. Send planes out to scout as regularly as possible. if you can find the enemy early, know where they are going, you can prepare an ambush for them. If they surprise you it might lead to a bad time.

13. Cross the T in battle, try to get the enemy coming at you and all your ships' guns are facing at them = fire superiority. If you can, you can also try to split your forces into two lines and surround the enemy. Keep light ships behind big ships at first, then when the enemy is softened up you can use DD's or CL's to close the distance quickly and engage more effectively with torpedoes and their light guns.

14. Don't put your most important ship in the front of the line. I find the AI tends to target the first ship in the line primarily, a CL or a CA in a heavy battlegroup can keep the enemy distracted for a while for low CP loss. I use cheaper ships first, losing them isn't as bad and gives the enemy less CP.

15. Even if you lose ships, make sure you get a net CP gain at least. Sink more of them than they sink of you and you could win with attrition, not ideal but not losing just yet.

I rarely use Japanese CV's, unless I'm strong enough with ground based air to support them and I protect them with a heavy battlegroup too. I've usually won the campaign (as far as map control is concerned) by around 22 August. However, as the guy above said, there are multiple strategies.

TL;DR Most important I find is spotting them first, softening up with subs or planes, then engaging at close range and focus fire on the most dangerous ships one by one. Did this on a new campaign after update yesterday and won against 2x CA, 2x CL and 2x DD with a force of inferior ships consisting of 1x CA, 2x CL, 4x DD and losing only 1 destroyer and 1 CL for the enemy TF destruction.

[Dirty Rotten Flieger]

At the start you want to avoid surface actions and just use CV air attacks to make points till you can afford a bigger surface fleet.

Then you can soften up enemy fleets with CV air groups, then attack with your surface fleet at night with focus on torpedoes.

[boris.glevrk]

Tips for playing as Japan?
1. get a carrier
2. upgrade Shortland Islands to Port level 3. Now you have indefinite aircraft (return your carrier to this port at night and get replenished, you'll have a full hangar tomorrow)
3. Get a few pairs of subs. Japanese subs come with recon planes, so not only they can defend Guadalcanal at night, they can also find you some good targets.
4. Profit. You should be melting enemy fleet at this point. Keep upgrading your fleet (get the second carrier, then a pair of DD as escort, then an independent ASW DD fleet)

[Mezomorto]

Originally posted by boris.glevrk:

Tips for playing as Japan?
1. get a carrier
2. upgrade Shortland Islands to Port level 3. Now you have indefinite aircraft (return your carrier to this port at night and get replenished, you'll have a full hangar tomorrow)
3. Get a few pairs of subs. Japanese subs come with recon planes, so not only they can defend Guadalcanal at night, they can also find you some good targets.
4. Profit. You should be melting enemy fleet at this point. Keep upgrading your fleet (get the second carrier, then a pair of DD as escort, then an independent ASW DD fleet)

What would I do if I get invaded then? And a CA TF intercepts my convoy?

[boris.glevrk]

Originally posted by Mezomorto:

Originally posted by boris.glevrk:

Tips for playing as Japan?
1. get a carrier
2. upgrade Shortland Islands to Port level 3. Now you have indefinite aircraft (return your carrier to this port at night and get replenished, you'll have a full hangar tomorrow)
3. Get a few pairs of subs. Japanese subs come with recon planes, so not only they can defend Guadalcanal at night, they can also find you some good targets.
4. Profit. You should be melting enemy fleet at this point. Keep upgrading your fleet (get the second carrier, then a pair of DD as escort, then an independent ASW DD fleet)

What would I do if I get invaded then? And a CA TF intercepts my convoy?

A carrier should be able to detect destroy enemy convoys/ TFs at range.
Your carriers will be very busy. They would have to destroy 2-4 fleets every day.

[dangiesey]

A lot of people here have made some good specific recommendations that I agree with. I think, however, it's helpful to start with a broad understanding of your overall situation relative to the USN in terms of strengths and weaknesses:

Weaknesses:

- In general, the US ships have air and surface search radar and as such, have better gunnery performance in most situations. They will often spot you sooner, develop a firing solution faster, and be able to hold that solution better in a wide array of combat conditions. Put simply, their gunnery performance will generally be better than your own.

- The US battleship force is significantly stronger than your own. They have six 16'' gunned ships that are very good all around designs and quite modern. You also technically have six fast battleships, but four of these are the Kongo-class battlecruisers, which are generally unsuitable for engaging modern fast battleships. Your 14'' guns are likely only going to be effective within 13,000m or so, but your armor doesn't offer any meaningful protection against 16'' shells at any range. In fact, it is barely adequate against 8'' shells, to which you'll be vulnerable at around 13,000m. Your two Yamato-class ships are significantly more competitive and can take ONE US fast BB in an even fight more times than not, but since you only have two of them, they're extremely valuable assets.

- The US has a large fleet of very sturdy, very versatile light cruisers that excel at putting lots of rounds down range. Your CLs are really more "destroyer leader" type vessels that, while fast, have a relatively unimpressive main armament in mostly open mounts that have poor firing arcs -- you only have one forward facing gun in many cases.

- The US generally has a larger fleet and can afford to take more losses than you can. In general, its ships also seem to be somewhat more sturdily built although yours, on average, might be a bit faster.

Strengths:

-TORPEDO WEAPONS. Your torpedoes of all types are significantly superior to US torpedoes, with they Type 93s mounted on your surface ships being the most clearly superior. Your torpedoes are faster, have a longer range, and carry a larger warhead. Further, your ships generally have strong torpedo batteries. Your modern destroyers have 8 tubes (two turreted quads) with reloads and your heavy and light cruisers have torpedo weapons as well, whereas US cruisers often do not. The superior range, reliability, and volume of torpedoes you can launch is your single biggest advantage.

-Because your torpedoes are not only superior but work, your submarines have the potential to be very effective.

- Scout aircraft. Your submarines as well as most of your ships larger than destroyers have at least some aviation capability, so your ability to do aerial reconnaissance is very robust. Recon as key as you'll want to concentrate your forces, avoid losing engagement, and be smart about how you position ships.

In general, don't engage the US on even terms if you don't have to. If they have cruisers, you want to have battlecruisers. If you're going to fight a US BB with surface units, you want 3:1 superiority if using the Kongo-class and 2:1 superiority if you're using the Yamato class.

ALWAYS launch a floatplane before combat. While aerial observation doesn't "improve" your solution, it will keep enemy ships "sighted" and keep your solution from going to zero/losing contact.

Be sure to make generous use of star shells in night engagements.

Finally, the first thing you should do at the start of anything that even looks to be an even-ish fight is to think about how you're going to attack with torpedoes. This could be large volleys at long ranges, or you can press in for the kill. Both can work, depending on what you're up against. Don't forget that your cruisers have strong torpedo batteries as well.

[dangiesey]

There are some other thoughts I'd like to add now that I've thought about this some more.

Big picture, I think that the most sensible strategy is to focus on preventing the US from landing troops at any of the key victory locations, and all of your resources should be dedicated to this end. Once a land war begins, it will be very difficult for you to command the sea AND land enough troops and supplies to prevail in land combat.

A merchant fleet large enough to land large numbers of troops is expensive, the journey from Rabaul to Guadalcanal takes two days each way and those ships need at least some ASW escort anyway. Because the USN has better spotting and fire control you really can't afford to get in even-fight type surface engagements as even if you use other tactics to prevail in the end, the losses you'll take will be unsustainable. Ensuring that you're only going into a surface action on favorable terms means either having numerical superiority, qualitative superiority, or, ideally, both.

My initial strategy was to have a very small merchant fleet -- only enough to work on upgrading the Shortland Islands port and to dedicate all other resources to finding and sinking US transports. When you find a convoy, it must be intercepted and destroyed, even if you incur losses. Otherwise, you needn't go out of your way to destroy the enemy. Carriers are particularly useful in this regard because attacking a task force, sinking a ship or two and then letting it withdraw is a perfectly acceptable outcome early on.

Once you've sunk one of the initial convoys and built up some command points through carefully chosen battles, you can start expanding your operational control of the sea. In general, I think that your fleet should consist of three elements:

1.) Several small submarine groups (I usually use two subs) stationed along the main approaches to Guadalcanal. Their scout planes will not only be the backbone of your recon efforts but can help you position your subs better for an intercept. The goal of most submarine engagements is to cause attrition while escaping unharmed.

2.) A carrier task force. I'm currently using both carriers and 8x Akizuki-class destroyers. This leaves me vulnerable to surface attack, yes, but with proper recon a large surface force shouldn't get close to you. The Akizukis are significantly better AA ships that other IJN options, but even eight of them can only work with your own fighters to defend against air attack -- they're not enough on their own.

3.) A battleship-centered force for intercepting convoys. The Yamato-class ships will make short work of any enemy taskforce that doesn't contain a battleship, so I favor them. You should have escorts in at least a 1:1 ratio, with 2 destroyers per battleship being even better. The "final" composition of one of my main surface forces is 1x Yamato, 2x Kongo, 6x Kagero and 1x Sendai.

As I gained progressive control of the sea, I've been able to create a carrier force, two battle forces of the composition described above, and perhaps 10 submarines in groups of two. I also have a cruiser squadron tasked to guarding the slot, and will add more as I'm able.

Once you've made it to think point, you'll be able to afford a more substantive merchant fleet, or several smaller merchant fleets with escorts. This is the point where you really start landing men and supplies in force. A basic ASW escort for the convoys will suffice because you'll have such good eyes on the route and air, surface, and submarine assets available to react to any threats.

Were the enemy to manage to land at Guadalcanal, I'd still focus on intercepting transports rather than counterattacking. Unless you really have solid control of the sea and can afford to land and resupply large numbers of men, land combat is just going to be a meat grinder that fritters away resources without improving your overall position.

[Mezomorto]

Originally posted by dangiesey:

There are some other thoughts I'd like to add now that I've thought about this some more.



A merchant fleet large enough to land large numbers of troops is expensive, the journey from Rabaul to Guadalcanal takes two days each way and those ships need at least some ASW escort anyway. Because the USN has better spotting and fire control you really can't afford to get in even-fight type surface engagements as even if you use other tactics to prevail in the end, the losses you'll take will be unsustainable. Ensuring that you're only going into a surface action on favorable terms means either having numerical superiority, qualitative superiority, or, ideally, both.




May I ask, how about night battles, would it break the stalemate or the same?

[dangiesey]

Night battles have some advantages and disadvantages. I think it's best to lay them out first before rendering any kind of conclusion:

The IJN has superior night optics and historically trained intensively for night fighting. This is reflected in the game by a solution boost of something like +20 or +25% (I can't remember which) once a target is sighted. The problem, of course, is that many USN ships have surface radar and while their optical performance is relatively poor at night, they're often able to detect you first and are still generally capable of laying down accurate fire.

This is not always the case, however. Weather, sea state and terrain can impair radar performance and in these conditions, you may do comparatively better in terms of spotting and gunnery. In short, there are cases in which you may be able to spot better than the USN at night, but your night spotting still isn't ever as good as your day spotting and your day spotting isn't ever as good as their day spotting.

There are some other factors to consider, however:

Sometimes -- often times -- night battles will have a shorter starting engagement range, especially since smaller targets might not be visible on radar until 17-20km whereas a battleship sized target might be visible at twice that range. With a shorter starting range, it may be easier for you to launch effective mass torpedo attacks at night.

There are two basic ways you can do this. You can fire a spread from all of your ships at maximum range and then get in a running gunnery engagement until torpedoes start to hit home, or you can press in with your fastest ships and launch tighter spreads at closer ranges. What you should do really depends on your force composition vs. their force composition. If I have the superior force, or if I'm able to make sure that all of their cruisers or large are taken under fire by one of my own cruiser-or-larger ships, I generally press in with the destroyers having them engage their opposite numbers as I close the range. How close I get depends on how much -- and how accurate -- the return fire is. I turn, launch torpedoes, and withdraw. A medium-spread (5-6 degrees) from 5,000m or less can be devastating to the enemy, especially if you're able to get off 24+ torpedoes.

Under these conditions, i.e. with all of their cruisers taking fire, I'm usually able to press through the destroyer screen without taking crippling damage.

If I have the inferior force, I'm more inclined to fire broad spreads early and have the destroyers retreat. Often times, they'll be able to escape without being completely mauled and at least some of the torpedoes will hit.

That really, in most cases is the goal -- to hit something. Hitting a destroyer will take it out of the fight even if it doesn't sink it, and hitting a cruiser or BB even once can tilt the odds in your favor in any number of ways. Another way to frame this is that when you have an equal or superior force, the goal is to hit as many ships as possible with at least one torpedo to help even the odds. When you have a stronger force, you can risk a tighter spread from closer ranges to sink enemy ships before their return fire unnecessarily damages your own.

The other major consideration in night fighting is air cover. IF the enemy has more and better air assets in the theater than you do, night can give you some important freedom of maneuver. If they don't, this is a less relevant consideration.

Again, your goal isn't really to even the odds in a straight-up, even fight. Your goal is only to fight on equal terms when you absolutely have to -- like to intercept a convoy. Otherwise, an attrition strategy in which you use submarines and aircraft to chip away at their strength and then make the final intercept with a superior force is a much better plan.

Don't forget that you can always fire torpedoes and retreat if you have to. Also don't forget that torpedoes are great for finishing off ships that are mostly crippled. There have been plenty of times where I'd have a CA fire a spread at an enemy cruiser that was (mostly) out of the fight so that I could turn my guns to a more meaningful threat.

It's worth appreciating that the secondary armament on your BBs is quite strong. The Yamato-class has a very powerful battery of 12x 155mm guns, of which 9x can fire broadside. The Kongos also have a strong battery of 6'' guns in casemates. Both can shred destroyers and can incapacitate cruisers on their own. There are disadvantages to splitting your fire across multiple targets, but in some cases, having your BBs engage lighter targets with their secondaries and heavier targets with their main batteries will take some pressure off your destroyers and light cruisers and either allow them to gain the upper hand against what they're shooting at or more easily maneuver into position for a torpedo attack.

I should also mention that opening a surface action with an air attack can also even the odds. Vals dropping bombs on an US BB will often damage topside systems and impair their gunnery performance such that you'll have an upper hand.

The main theme, as you've probably guessed, is concentrate your forces and only engage them if you have the clear upper hand or if you have to to keep enemy troops from landing. If you inflict even moderate losses on the enemy without taking any of your own, your fleet will grow and you'll have more options available to you. Once you have surface, submarine and air assets working together, you'll start to dictate the battle conditions rather than them.

[jeffreyspencer]

May I ask why so many people advocate using precious Zeros, the carrier’s best defense system, as recon aircraft? I must be missing something. Zeros were never used for recon, unless there were no better aircraft available. The Zero only had an unreliable tactical radio, aircraft-to-aircraft, short range—when it worked. It often did not. It could not report by radio to the carrier if it found something with its short-ranged radio. What are you going to do if you dispatch 20 Zeros for reconnaissance, and your carrier is spotted by SBDs? Send up Kates? The Japanese were fond of using cruiser recon floatplanes for scouting. Midway taught them they needed to use the carrier’s Kates which had a navigator and radio man on board, and powerful radios. This way they could search all points of the compass, and report what they saw.

The best advice for the Japanese in a surface ship battle is to form their destroyers into divisions of four led by a light cruiser for each division. Keep battleships and heavy cruisers together in a column. Make sure there is 1000 yards between ships with the BBs and CAs. Remember, the key is never to disrupt your columns by making maneuver errors. When the big ships must turn, knock the speed down to 18 knots. They are not speedboats which can turn on a dime. If the column is plowing along at 30 knots, and must turn, send the lead to the left, second to the right, third to the left, and alternate all down the line. This way you do not end up with a confused mess.

Night or day, always shoot torps first, even if it is a long shot. Send vast shoals of them. Do not waste your time shooting a couple torps. The torp at this time was an area weapon, not a precision weapon. You can be precise at 2000 yards. If it is night, do not fire guns or star shells. This removes surprise, and gives the Americans gun flashes upon which to aim. You want to rip the Americans to pieces on your terms. Turn away and wait for results. If the Americans are hidden against land, or by mist, fire the torps using manual fire into the area where you suspect they are.

Say you break the bank at Monte Carlo, boom, boom, boom, and the stupid game shows you you just sank three cruisers (nobody knew the real results of night battles). Come about and go hunting for the survivors using guns and torps. Use a destroyer division of four led by a light cruiser to scout. Keep heavy ships within say 8000 yards in day, less at night, to support the destroyers with big guns.

The USN will kill you with long range fire directed by radar, if the AI plays it right (range-in using SPOT, go out of SPOT when they are at say 80%, this lets the guns blaze away as fast as they can be loaded, murder if ranged-in, but go back to SPOT if the percentage falls).
Your best bet is to hope is the AI disrupts its formations by bad maneuver choices, then you go in and tear them up.

The Japanese must give the Americans a well-controlled bashing. If you are out of luck, make smoke, whoops, I forgot the designer won’t let you. Zig-zag all your ships at high speed. If it is night, go close to the shore and disappear against the shoreline, and flee along the shore. Don’t shoot if you are trying to hide. Do not fight to the death, even though the game encourages this. The Japanese cannot afford to lose ships. There are no expendable ships in their navy. Use torpedoes in masses. They are the Japanese ace-in-the-hole.

First and foremost: mass your assets for battle. I see people creating tiny task forces. This is a good way to feed the AI victory points.