ORIGINAL: HansBolter
ORIGINAL: DesertWolf101
It's certainly not a great start for the Empire but honestly I think he can still bring this around. Some of my major assets are in pretty exposed positions and he has yet to lose anything super critical.
+1
Talk of Jap players quitting over a few small setbacks is downright comical. They REALLY need to be FORCED to play the Allied side at least once and learn what it is like to suffer one major setback after another and be expected to keep right on taking it.
The foray to Wake was dangerous enough with the KB retiring from Pearl, but to push it all the way to Guam leaves the American carriers deep in Indian country. One would think most Jap players would be salivating over the opportunity it presents.
I'll preface this by stating that I agree that these setbacks are small fry in the big picture of things.
The problem is that the early weeks and months are absolutely critical for Japan to enable a firm base for a competitive late-war game. Even minor setbacks such as these can have substantial consequences, perhaps not immediately, but in the weeks to come.
Shipping that is sunk or has to be diverted can play havoc with invasion schedules, especially in areas east of Truk where transit times are that much longer, and the number of units to hand for offensive operations is quite limited. In other words, it likely won't have an impact on the first wave invasions, but it absolutely does interfere with second and third wave invasions in areas that can be key stepping stones for the Allied counter-offensive.
While each of these engagements alone is fairly trivial, in aggregate they can wrestle the initiative off Japan. Doing that this early in the war, where Japan has little if any preparations in place, can lead to a very short game.
At the end of the day, if you're playing the Allies and suffering one major setback after another, then you're playing it wrong. The name of the game there is a calculated defence, and there's plenty of ocean for the Allies to operate in where they can gain local superiority and throw sand in the IJ engines, as we can see here.
On the flipside, the IJ side needs to be diligent in minimizing scope for the Allies to interfere with operations, as well as plan in advance for losses and setbacks. From my own experience and what I've seen elsewhere, it seems a common trend for less experienced IJ players to be really thrown off kilter when an invasion convoy gets wiped out and lose steam, where a more experienced player has a contingency plan to account for this.
As a more general observation, the Allies in '41-42 is plain sailing compared to IJ in '45. The two aren't even in the same order of magnitude
; Julia Child
