The Temptation of Tanganyika (an essay to benefit beginners)

[garrisonchisholm]

So you're Japan, and you have just been on the winning side in an early war with Germany.  They were simply incapable or unwilling to project meaningful power into the Far East, and now you reap the rewards.  Suddenly your soothsayers foresee a host of islands suitable for air bases across the Pacific, and your dreams of empire blossom.  But in that tasty list of territories to take one tops the tally; Tanganyika.  Gateway to the West, your ticket to an Indian Ocean port!  At a stroke you have available an advantage the original Japan did not and contesting those seas with the Royal Navy is a real possibility.  However, before you spend those measly 3 colonial points, first pause and consider everything you are buying.

Already Japan has a commitment to expand their basing in South East Asia.  Even if you do not have your sights set on Singapore, Formosa will demand a hefty investment.  Eventually to be safe you will need to base at least a medium sized fleet there, and to be safe probably retain the ability to push the majority of your fleet there to block a move by a European power.  That means 250-300 basing points at least, and perhaps more.  Then you will want to be able to protect the airbases you develop across SEA, bases which take a long time to develop, and time is almost more important than coin in any regard.  Suffice to say SEA will demand ~ 50 million "Yen" without buying defensive batteries, and that doesn't even touch the value of the ships that will need to be based there.

Now you get to Tanganyika itself.  It is alone on the African coast, and everything that applied to SEA will also apply here.  Aside from investment, the Indian Ocean is a month further from Japan, so stationing a modest fleet here is even more important, especially considering your needed investment in basing.  Basing requirements which, by the way, start from a much lower level than the 100 Formosa starts at.  So the expense will be at the least similar if not greater, but more important still is what it will do to your navy.  Defending SEA *and* the Indian Ocean will demand that your fleet grow by roughly 50%.  SEA alone you might get away by having "trip wire" forces in Formosa, say 6 cruisers and a dozen destroyers, but maintaining Tanganyika almost certainly will force you to add without subtracting and grow your fleet to level where its expense my become unsupportable if you are faced with an unfortunate economy or a desire to afford a large Air Arm.  These last expenses can quite sneak up on you.

So in short do consider carefully any step beyond your near borders, as the cost of the opportunity may be greater than it first appears!

[dorn]

Now you can think that it is 1905 and you have beaten Russia and one of your possible choices is to takeover Finland and be so close to Western powers ....

[rimbecano]

I've generally found base caps to be rather toothless in RTW: As long as you have a base in a region, sure, vessels may be in the yard for repairs often if you're over cap, but unlike regions where you have no bases, you'll always get them back in a few months, as opposed to losing them for the duration of the war if you have them somewhere where you have no bases and they get interned.

[dorn]

Jun 7, 2019 4:30:46 GMT -6 rimbecano said:

I've generally found base caps to be rather toothless in RTW: As long as you have a base in a region, sure, vessels may be in the yard for repairs often if you're over cap, but unlike regions where you have no bases, you'll always get them back in a few months, as opposed to losing them for the duration of the war if you have them somewhere where you have no bases and they get interned.

But it was like that. Just think that Germany has sam small base properly defended near River Plate. It would change for Admiral Spee everything.

[AiryW]

Jun 7, 2019 5:22:43 GMT -6 dorn said:

Jun 7, 2019 4:30:46 GMT -6 rimbecano said:

I've generally found base caps to be rather toothless in RTW: As long as you have a base in a region, sure, vessels may be in the yard for repairs often if you're over cap, but unlike regions where you have no bases, you'll always get them back in a few months, as opposed to losing them for the duration of the war if you have them somewhere where you have no bases and they get interned.

But it was like that. Just think that Germany has sam small base properly defended near River Plate. It would change for Admiral Spee everything.

Just how "proper" do you want these defenses to be?  The British would have had a battlecruiser and aircraft carrier on the scene in a couple more days.  To keep the British from just shelling or bombing the harbor they would need a battery of heavy guns and an airbase.  It would be a base more expensive then the Spree... and no doubt something the British and French would have been keenly interested in capturing with marines in the first couple months of the war.  So you'd also want a division of German marines on site.  But then they'd need to be supplied so that's more traffic and you need a bigger base with more planes and smaller patro ships...  at some point we need to start listening to Mahan about the benefits of sea lane control.

[dorn]

Jun 7, 2019 9:55:03 GMT -6 AiryW said:

Jun 7, 2019 5:22:43 GMT -6 dorn said:

But it was like that. Just think that Germany has sam small base properly defended near River Plate. It would change for Admiral Spee everything.

Just how "proper" do you want these defenses to be?  The British would have had a battlecruiser and aircraft carrier on the scene in a couple more days.  To keep the British from just shelling or bombing the harbor they would need a battery of heavy guns and an airbase.  It would be a base more expensive then the Spree... and no doubt something the British and French would have been keenly interested in capturing with marines in the first couple months of the war.  So you'd also want a division of German marines on site.  But then they'd need to be supplied so that's more traffic and you need a bigger base with more planes and smaller patro ships...  at some point we need to start listening to Mahan about the benefits of sea lane control.

I completely agree with you, it was just example to show how important are all the bases and that a sole ship without support cannot do much.

[arminpfano]

In my oppinion there is one layer missing in gameplay: the trade and provision routes from and to the posessions. Apart from some exceptions like Malta it is completely insignifant, which posession you take or hold, as long as you get some base points. So actually I would take Norway or Finland as Japan without hesitating, just for the fun of it ;-)

A rudimentary provision system would add greatly for the realism of the simulation, and could also be used as a trigger for specific battle types and places.