Oahu Invasion Scenario Playing Tips

This is a very large scenario with numerous units.  Each turn takes a few minutes to play, especially in the beginning.  Don't worry; you will soon have less units to move!  The AI will take its time, trying to figure out its best moves.  Let it think.  It will move faster as its forces are also reduced.

When it's your turn, definitely use the "next unit" arrow to avoid overlooking units.  However, when you are taken to an area, move all the units in that area so that you don't need to be scanning back and forth over the map as much.  If you prefer, use CTRL+click to set long distance movement, particularly for the fleets. 

Launch both airplanes from a hangar while you have it in focus to avoid needing to come back to it later in the turn.  Put units to sleep if they are where you want them and are not going to be engaged for several turns.  Don't forget them, however!

Two other things that may help move the game along during AI play are to move the AI Animation Speed and Map Scroll Speed to higher settings in Preferences and Controls options.  If the video play is choppy in general, consider reducing Render, Effects, and Lighting Quality in Performance options.

Consider playing with Unit Accenting Glow turned on.  It may be a bit difficult to see some units against the background.

A note about program crashes:  OOB can crash sometimes; we all know this.  It is less frequent than it used to be, but it still happens.  This scenario may crash, but not very often despite its size.  If it does crash, just restart the game and reload the Auto Save.  Every once in a while, it may be a good idea to save the game, exit to desktop, and restart it as a precaution.

There are reasons why the U.S. player starts with no resources and no command points.  The scenario is meant to depict a struggle for survival with limited resources available, and the opportunity to purchase and deploy additional units is not provided.

You don't get to place your units initially.  I did this deliberately in order to choreograph the scenario to play the way I intended.  In any case, you don't have much time while the Japanese consolidate their invasion forces and prepare to assault Pearl Harbor and Honolulu.  Believe me, you will have plenty to do getting your defenses set up and not much time to do it.

Pay attention to orders!  Sure, the Americans are supposed to win in the end but you can lose this scenario if you don't play well and do what you are supposed to do.  You can also end up with an unsatisfying draw if you don't clear the island by the end of the scenario.


*** SPOILER ALERT ***  STOP READING HERE UNLESS YOU WANT TO LEARN THINGS THAT MAY SPOIL YOUR ENJOYMENT OF THIS SCENARIO.


First of all, I meant what I said about following orders.  If you don't blow bridges and place mines where indicated by previous placements, you could be quickly overwhelmed.  If the enemy takes both Pearl Harbor and Honolulu, you lose immediately.  The whole idea of this scenario is to slow the Japanese invasion down until your fleets can sink the Japanese supply ships and cut off their resource income.  If you last long enough, you get reinforced and then you can work on taking the island back.  

You are given enough resources in the beginning to blow bridges and place mines.  Both tasks are delaying tactics.  Look for your engineers; they are already located where they should be to do their jobs.  It might be interesting to see what would happen if you don't take these hints; I'd be surprised to hear from anybody who disregarded these orders and still won the scenario.

Regarding your fleets, the order to prioritize sinking supply ships is crucial.  The longer you take to do so, the harder it's going to be to hold off the Japanese army.  The Japanese have 23 submarines all along the northern and eastern coasts (this is historically correct in terms of the numbers of subs that were nearby during the Pearl Harbor attack) and they bunch up in packs when pursuing your ships.

In the original version of this scenario, what you wanted to do is to outrun the subs in order to get at the supply ships as quickly as possible and also to preserve your fleets' strength for the major sea battle which comes later (if you get there in time; the carriers and their escorts leave once the last Japanese plane is destroyed).  Since that version was released, there was a change in which submarines operate and do battle and now it's impossible to just ignore them and sail on.  This added a bit of difficulty, of course, but I welcome it.

The priority for your bombers (and for your northern ships and coastal guns while they are still alive, which is not for long) is to reduce Japanese land unit strength.  The Japanese earn 50 resource points per turn until their last supply ship is destroyed, so you want them to use up as many points as possible on the way to Pearl Harbor and Honolulu.  You, on the other hand, get no resource income until merchant ships appear on the south coast in turn 15.

Your fighters should be shooting down as many enemy bombers as they can, particularly torpedo bombers.  Those planes are nasty business for your fleets as they fight their way north.  At the same time, there are many Japanese Zeros to deal with and your fighters will be decimated.  Try not to let them get destroyed; instead, when they are weakened, fly them away to a safe airfield (there are a number of airfields to choose from) and store them until your own resource points start flowing again.  Then you can fix them and put them back into service.

You get a bit of help during the scenario at some points, but not much.  Try to hold out until the major reinforcements arrive after January 31.  Be prepared to shift defenses as necessary because the Japanese are very aggressive in this scenario. If you have done all of the above, you should be still in the game when the table turns.  Don't forget that to win this scenario, you have to take back all of the secondary victory points that the Japanese conquered when they moved south.  In every one of these locations, garrison units or bunkers have been spawned.  You must defeat them and take back all of the victory points before the end of the scenario.