How to make a good use of the British fleet in the Indian Ocean

[mozkaynak]

I am relatively a new player. I played allies so far only and I am always frustrated with the British sea units in Indian sea (35). In the beginning of the game I always move them to 30 along with other ships around Australia. Then, they stay there for the rest of the game. Eventually, they are wasted without any meaningful use. Could you help me here. Tell me a few ways about how I can make these ships useful.

Thank you in advance.

[Amon-Sul]

are you playing with Weapons Devealopment? National Advantages? Bid?

well there are a few tricks…

for example
you can strife French Indochina early on with Indian inf and Indian SZ AC
… or to destroy Japanese sub in the Solomons with the Australian sub and land that very fighter on the Hawaiian AC to boost the defense there

but without Colonial Garrison more or less Your navy doesnt stand big chances against Japanese Navy

You should withdraw… and sail around Africa to come to sz12 from where You can use it to strike Germany

[Darkman]

Overall this depends on your strategy for the game, but I would do the following:

If the German player didn’t take Egypt and you still hold the Suez, send the fleet (maybe with the destroyer, maybe without) to the med sea (this is a major misplay of Germany though, so don’t bet on that).

Otherwise I would

• Kill the Japanese transport in SZ59 with the destroyer. This slows down Japan a lot and is a very good move in 99.9% of all games.

• Attack the Japanese sub with the British sub. A good Japs player will give you only one shot and submerge it, so he can attack Pearl with it. It might be an option to keep the sub to guard the transport, see below.

• Move my transport from Australia (picking up one inf) via New Zealand (picking up the second inf) to SZ42, later moving it to SZ22, and then either landing troops in French Equatorial Africa, Belgian Congo, Algeria (if you don’t have Africa under control) or (if you are lucky and don’t need the troops there) in direction of France to unite with the British fleet.

• the AC and the TR in SZ35 either load 2 inf from India, taking Egypt back together with the troops from T-J and the fighter (if the Axis bid went into Africa, you usually cannot take it back), or simply flee to SZ 33. Since India cannot be hold if you play Kill Germany first, you can take away troops from there.

I know that the fleet needs time to get to their destination, but: You haven’t wasted units then and you get some very strong units midgame when UK suffers from a low income.

Other options are:

• Australian transport loads 2 inf and attacks New Guinea

• Indian transport loads 2 inf and attacks Borneo

If you want to hold Borneo for a turn, you can use your AC as a blocker. But because both attacks with inf each just have a 66.7% chance of succeeding (both succeed at a 44.4% chance) and because you just slow down Japan with it (which makes no big difference if you let him do what he wants later and focus on Germany) I consider it a waste of units.

• Attack the Japanese sub with your sub + a fighter and land the fighter on the US AC. This makes it harder for the Japs to kill Pearl, but they still can, so the fighter is lost.

A very interesting option which is pretty hard to play is an opening move if you try Kill Japan First (or Slow Japan since you usually win over Germany, Japan is hard to take like all island nations).

• Build an IC in India turn 1. This needs to be prepared to be taken back by Russia at least once!! So make sure you have 2 tanks and if possible 1-2 fighters in Caucasus and maybe 1-2 inf in Persia. The whole strategy described shortly: UK needs to help Russia in Europe, US helps in Africa (or vice versa), Russia holds India and China at least once so US and UK can build ICs there turn 1 and later push with tanks. You will need air superiority there, US fighters and bombers are needed!

• attack French Indo with the Indian inf + the fighter. You need to kill the inf and keep your fighter, killing his fighter is a bonus. This makes sure he cannot take India turn 1, this makes sure you hold India until turn 2 when you can build tanks.

If you are interested in the Slow Japan First strategy let me know and I give you more details.

Greetz

Darkman

[Amon-Sul]

@Hobbes:

My usual moves are:

• Send the sub to attack the Japanese sub
• Send the australian transport with 2 inf to attack New Guinea (a toss-up)
• Send the destroyer to sink the Japanese transport on SZ59
• Send the transport with 2 inf from India and the fighter to retake Egypt or to attack Indochina/Borneo
• Pull back the carrier but keeping it into position for an air attack on the Italian fleet (you’ll have to move a fighter from the UK to West Russia/French Equatorial Africa for this) or send it to Borneo if you decided to attack it.

Italian fleet  :?

[mozkaynak]

Thank you very much for all these useful information. I have one related question. For some reason building an IC in India at turn 1 seems to be a necessary step for me.
Would you confirm that?

[Darkman]

This answer is an easy one for me ^^

NO!

It is only useful and necessary if you try a Kill/Slow Japan strategy. If you don’t back it up with more ICs from US in Sinkiang and China, and with Russian inf/tank support early, you get beaten up there and lose an IC to the Japs in a very important zone. Then it’s usually game over.

To give you a few reaons: If the Japs get a single IPC from the bid, they open with 1 IC, 2 TR and place the IC in FIC. If they get nothing, I would counter the IC mostly with double-IC in Kwantung and FIC. Then you cannot hold it against the mass of their troops, especially if Germany pushes hard vs Russia and Russia cannot help you out. It might be enough to give Japan a playground for the early rounds, but usually Japan gets neglected anyways (because Germany is easier to kill) so they have enough free resources.

If you like to know more about the KJF strategy or play a game on TripleA, let me know.

[Hobbes]

@Amon:

• Pull back the carrier but keeping it into position for an air attack on the Italian fleet (you’ll have to move a fighter from the UK to West Russia/French Equatorial Africa for this) or send it to Borneo if you decided to attack it.

Italian fleet  :?

aka German fleet on the Mediterranean. During non-combat you move the UK carrier to SZ33 and land the plane there after the attack on Egypt. You also move 1 of the fighters from the UK to either West Russia or French West Africa (not Equatorial like mentioned above).
If the German fleet on G2 attacks and conquers Trans-Jordan while the units on Libya take Egypt you can still sink the BB and transport since the carrier on SZ33 will allow for the 2nd fighter on WR/FWA to attack the fleet.
Of course, Japan might decide to attack the carrier and fighter on SZ33 with 2 planes to prevent such a move but it is a risky attack on their part.

[Amon-Sul]

@Hobbes:

@Amon:

• Pull back the carrier but keeping it into position for an air attack on the Italian fleet (you’ll have to move a fighter from the UK to West Russia/French Equatorial Africa for this) or send it to Borneo if you decided to attack it.

Italian fleet  :?

aka German fleet on the Mediterranean. During non-combat you move the UK carrier to SZ33 and land the plane there after the attack on Egypt. You also move 1 of the fighters from the UK to either West Russia or French West Africa (not Equatorial like mentioned above).
If the German fleet on G2 attacks and conquers Trans-Jordan while the units on Libya take Egypt you can still sink the BB and transport since the carrier on SZ33 will allow for the 2nd fighter on WR/FWA to attack the fleet.
Of course, Japan might decide to attack the carrier and fighter on SZ33 with 2 planes to prevent such a move but it is a risky attack on their part.

Japan can send the bat too

[Hobbes]

@Amon:

Japan can send the bat too

Takes 3 moves from SZ37 to SZ33

[Peter79]

There are a lot of different possibilities. All depending on what strategy you take as the allies. You could also just keep the fleet at india for one turn. Use the fighter to sink the transport at sz 59 and then return. Use the australian sub to either attack the sub in sz45 or move with the transport to sz39. Depending on the Japan player, you may now have an opportunity.You can then take East Indies or Borneo with 4 inf (2 from australia and 2 from India) and support from the fighter. 
If he goes after you fleet he will have divided his fleet wich should give some options the next couple of turns and it might disrupt some of his plans at the mainland of Asia.

[Amon-Sul]

in any case try playing with NAs

Colonial Garrison can help a lot here

cheers :)

[Battal]

Keep the fleet there summon more fighters inside and support egypt .  british fleet in that sector will  make a invisible wall inside japan players head like ^he was never gonna make it into medeteriianian or  land on africa^.With some Usa pressure Japan will turn to pacific again.than with  a  industrial complex in india you can press japan out of main continent . airdcraft help needed as well

[macphearsome]

Generally speaking that fleet is useful for harrassing the japanese forces, and not much else.  If you send the fleet into the mediterranean it risks becoming redundant (and this is only possible if Germany does not close the Suez Canal due to error or bad rolling).  I consider the Indian Ocean fleet to be basically the same as a lot of Allied units in Asia - something that you can throw under the bus to slow down the Japanese advancement.  Japan WILL advance; be sure of that.  Just do your best to buy one turn, then one more turn, then another.  Stall Japan and kill Germany.

I like several of the strategies mentioned above, and I’m glad that I read this thread because it gave me some new ideas.  For example, I had never even considered strafing the submarine with the fighter and protecting pearl harbour.  Of course, Japan should still be able to sink the whole mess, but it does provide slightly better chance of a successful American counter-attack.

[Nix]

My personal feel on Slow japan first

Attack FIC
3 inf, 1 fig Kill the units if possiable if Fig lives land in Sinkiang.

Kill transport in SZ59

I would go both AC and dst to be sure, use trnsport to reinforce india depending on succes of attack in fic i guess.

Attack New guniea, Australia will fall soner or later anyway, if succesful its annoying for japan.

Also attack japanese sub with your sub.

As russia you should have stacked 6 inf in Buryatia, and sent 2 arm from Russia to Yakutsk (i usually open with west russia belo attack and 3 inf, 3 arm Buy.)

The easiest way to cripple japan is to kill of it´s land units and make sure there are to many targets.

[PrelateZeratul]

Myself it really depends on what Germany does, though my standard moves are, Dest from SZ35 to SZ59, Sub from SZ40 to SZ45, The Subs a 50/50, some people like to take the carrier to the tran as well but, I prefer the Dest Alone. If Africa is going good, Namely if I can retake EGY, then the tran in SZ40 takes two inf from AUS and invades New Guinea (Something nice to try) If I cannot retake EGY I like to use the Tran to pick up 2 INF from AUS and then move to SZ30, then on UK2 drop them anywhere along the Africa coast (Even Persia if it needs them). If Germany takes EGY and you “can” retake it, then do it bringing 2 inf from IND, 1 INF from TRJ and the Fighter from SZ35 (You can also bring your Bomber but I usually don’t). Otherwise I like to stack 2 inf in TRJ and the 3 Indian Inf and A-A gun to Persia. The AC stays with the Tran wherever it decides to go. If Germany is stupid and doesn’t take EGY, then smile :lol: happily and move the INF from TRJ into it, stack 4 + A-A gun in Persia, move the FIG to EGY and move the Tran and AC to SZ33 (Out of reach of the IJN).
The SAF INF always moves up, regardless of what you do.