The Fleet Chewer

[Novosibirsk]

How many of you find it essential to consolidate you japanese fleet as soon as possible?

J1 presents the option to:

1–> consolidate the fleet and scare the allies away from getting to close. It allows you to own the asian coast while you set up tranny routes and/or IC zones. Good for about three turns.

2–> Attack the vunerable fleets. Push USA back another turn or two, and maybe take a daring attack at the UK asian fleet. This most often ends in losses where the severity is contolled by the dice.

3–> Attack and build more fleet. Kind of a median between the two. Unfortunately, this does nothing for getting ground troops on land.

I have found in the past that a consolidation of the “CHEWER” is good because it does not risk your ships early, and gives you the chance to build and flex muscles as the Allies (usually USA) tries to build its own fleet. The trick is just getting USA to move close enough because any battle with the US fleet in the first two turns with Japan is worth most sacrifices. Consider how long it takes the US to rebuild, restock, and move ships back into combat in the Pacific. If USA bails on the Pacific, then the choice is yours. Send the CHEWER on a renegade mission at ASIA/AFRICA or over to Western USA. Either way you should have enough troops by then to get into where you want.

Thoughts?

[ajgundam5]

If you don’t attack Pearl on J1 America can build up a fleet pretty fast that can kill your fleet and most often the most I lose at Pearl is the Sub and Dst so it’s not such a big deal but I generally consolidate my fleet in 1-2 turns after that in SZ 60

[Guest]

I almost never fully consolidate my Japan fleet.

As a general rule, I use 2 distinct Japan fleets made up from survivors of the J1 attacks and subsequent counters… 1 fleet to TRN forces out of Tokyo, the other to annoy the allies whereever it will do the most good :-)

[newpaintbrush]

REAL consolidation is not great, because Japanese transports should be moving units to French Indochina, and also pulling infantry off the isolated islands (they can’t do both).

I’ll usually run around with two little fleets, and consolidate if the Allies get close.  One fleet will typically have two battleships for two support shots, but it can easily change to a split of battleships  between western and eastern navies.  It’s sort of like consolidation because they can usually unite in a single turn of movement, but it’s not REAL consolidation (the whole navy doesn’t go from point to point together).

[SSG Rock]

I have to agree with Switch and Paintbrush.  It is a mistake logistically to unite the fleets, until the islands have been cleared of infantry, because the fleet(s) must serve different purposes for maximum efficiency.  The fleet clearing the islands can also attack Australia and New Zealand, if desired, before uniting in SZ 60 for home island protection.

[Jennifer]

How risky is it for you to advance your Jap fleet into the Med?

And yea, I agree.  2 Fleets with Trn/BBs in one fleet, ACs/Trns in the other.  The first fleet is for island consolidations/Africa taking.  The second for shuffling troops into Asia from Japan.

[Novosibirsk]

Japanese fleet to the Med is a waste. What happens when you lose troops. You can’t really turn around anymore. Soon enough after you’ll lose Africa, which is most likely the reason your fleet was near the Med in the first place. Unless your supply lines are strong with Japan, I would not reccomend sending any fleet to the Med.

[Jennifer]

The idea of putting the fleet in the med is to kill off the American and British fleets, or at least force them to stop supplying Africa.  The idea would be to have 2 ICs running on the mainland with a smaller fleet by Japan to pump in 14 units a round into Asia freeing up your BBs, ACs and Fighters to force the Allies to retreat or face a 1-2 punch of Japan hitting them followed by a Germany strike sinking their entire fleet.

Obviously, if the Allies are sitting on 1-3 carriers and 2+ battleships with destroyers/submarines for added cannon fodder, Japan wouldn’t waste her time.  But let’s assume the allies focused more on transports and less on support ships and so we’re looking at 2 battleships, 2 destroyers and 10-15 transports instead.

[Novosibirsk]

I would have to say that under those circumstances, yes it may be worth it to send the Japanese Navy towards Europe. It would be well worth it to sink as many transports as possible in the European theater.

The only thing is, it takes several turns to sail a fleet up along africa, through the Med, and then engage the enemy in a preferable battle. It seems like when two fleets are inches from battle, most often a game of cat and mouse develops where the attacker is forced into a battle they might not want.

But if you have 2 IC’s pumping land units and a homeland fleet also channeling troops while protecting from bombardments, it may be valuable to send the fleet over. Sometimes it seems like there is really no alternative choice of what to do with the Japanese navy.

[Jennifer]

Yea, it takes a few rounds to get there, but bear in mind many players are going to end up with their fleet down in the Indian Ocean/Suez Canal anyway, through normal game play.  It’s just so much more convenient when reclaiming Africa after Geramny’s lost it not to.

[jsp4563]

I very rarely consolidate my fleet, unless the US is building up naval forces in the pacific.  I like having 2 fleets one operating in the Indian Ocean/SW Pacific and the other operating in the N Pacific/SE Pacific.

[Jennifer]

I kinda miss invading neutrals…so convenient to steal Brazil then!  -3 IPC from America a round -6 the round they move to retake it unless htey wnat to divert Transports off Germany…