@knp7765:
I agree with you CWO Marc. There should be a small Dutch presence on the DEI Islands. The way it is now, if Japan attacks early or for some reason India and ANZAC doesn’t take the Dutch islands, Japan can get those expensive islands with no fight. That isn’t right. Granted, the Japanese attacks were so sudden and quick that they overwhelmed what defense there was, but it was still a fight. So there should be something there for them to fight, even if it is a single Dutch infantry. As for the sea zones around them, I really don’t have a clue as to what would be proper.
From a quick check, it looks like Holland’s naval forces in the DEI area at the time of the Japanese invasion consisted primarily of the light cruisers De Ruyter, Java and Tromp and of the destroyers Van Ghent, Evertsen, Kortenaer, Piet Hein, Witte de With, Banckert, and Van Nes. By March 1942, all but Tromp had been sunk in combat or scuttled after sustaining heavy damage.
So on the naval side of the game, I’d say that Holland should indeed have some naval presence in the DEI area. The minimum I’d give it would be one ship (either one cruiser or one destroyer), the maximum I’d give it would be three ships (one cruiser plus two destroyers), and my feeling is that the best combination would be the middle-ground option of two ships (one cruiser and one destroyer). This would reflect the modest size of Holland’s WWII navy and the types of ships that the Dutch actually had on duty in the DEI in 1941 (notwithstanding Holland’s grandiose pre-war ambitions to build three battlecruisers for its DEI fleet). A force of just one cruiser and one destroyer probably wouldn’t drastically unbalance the situation on the Pacific 1940 side of the game – but at the same time, as you noted, it would prevent Japan from simply walking unopposed into the IPC-wealthy DEI. On land, the same approach could be used: a mimimum of one infantry unit and a maximum of three, with two being perhaps the optimal number.
There could even be an elastic element to this house rule option. The Allied player who is picked to control the token Dutch forces could be given some limited options for choosing a set-up at the start of the game. For instance, there could be a prescribed minimum of one infantry unit, one cruiser and one destroyer, and the player could then choose to add either a) two more infantry; or b) two more destroyers; or c) one infantry and one destroyer, for a total of five units in each case. If this is considered too powerful, the ceiling could be four units: one infantry, one cruiser and one destroyer, plus either one extra infantry or one extra destroyer depending on what the Dutch player would prefer to have.
At the Dutch player’s discretion, the naval units could initially be placed (in any combination) in sea zones 41 and/or 42 and /or 44 (and perhaps even in SZ 45, though I don’t see much point in doing so). The infantry could initially be placed (in any combination) on Sumatra and/or Java and/or Celebes (and perhaps even in Dutch New Guinea, though this too would be rather pointless). The house rule could state that Dutch naval forces are prohibited from operating in sea zea zones other than 41, 42, 44 and 45 (similarly to the restrictions that China has on the territories it can enter). China does get a limited entry dispensation with regard to Burma and Kwantung, so perhaps the Dutch player could get a limited dispensation to enter SZ 43 (since in real life part of the island of Borneo was Dutch). The house rule could also state that Dutch infantry units must remain on the Dutch territories to which they were initially assigned, with perhaps their being allowed, at most, to travel by naval transport from one DEI territory to another.
