The other pupose of this AAR is to provide more data for people wanting to see how Brian's B-Mod works in actual play.
The campaign that we selected is the December 7th start, B-Mod, with the following options:
Weather: off, PDU: off, Sub Doctrines: off, Allied DCO: on, FOW: on, Reinforcements: extremely variable, 1 day turn cycle, historical first turn: off,
--and---
first turn surprise: off
As the Japanese Player, I elected to try an alternate strategy this game. I theorized that Japan started the war more in line with American expectations. That is, instead of attacking Pearl Harbor, Japan instead focused her attention in the Far East. Japan honorably declares war before commencing hostilities, and there is no sudden wave of surprise attacks prior to war being declared. As such, the Allies are able to alert their forces and commence hostilities from day one.
My initial plans were:
1. Isolate the Philippines. Do Not land in force on Luzon immediately. Instead cut them off and clean them up later. Focus on taking the southern islands and cutting off the escape paths from the PI as soon as possible.
2. Do not immediately invade Malaya. Deal with it in good order.
3. Focus all forces originally planned for the Philippines invasion on either the operations south of Luzon, on on the Chinese mainland. By reinforcing the China Expeditionary force with elements of the Southern Area Army, I hoped to take some decisive action in China without having to reduce the Kwangtung Army's fighting strength in the Korean theater.
4. Be conservative in my use of air power. That does not mean "do not use the units." Instead, I would plan my operations to avoid the unnecessary loss of precious Naval Pilots. My success in doing this will be critical in the latter part of 1942, and is one of the hardest things for most Japanese players to manage.
5. Show proper concern for the preservation of my naval assets. Each Ship in the Japanese Navy is important. I have spent countless hours reading and researching this history of this Navy and the ships. Nothing would give me greater pleasure than to use this force in battle and win. I know that I would take each warship loss personally, so like the aircraft, I had no plans to throw ships away on follies. Note that this does include Japanese Submarines.
6. Conduct a proper long term ASW campaign as Japan to ensure that the home islands do not starve.
7. Plan for the future defense of the empire early, so that it will be ready when the time comes.
8. Weaken the allies as much as possible, where ever possible. Diminish their abilities to strike back early.
On the industrial Front, my plans are to work with what is already there. Avoid expanding any industry at start. To do so just about always results in Japan running short on supplies during the first two months, slowing up the offensive. Convert all research in production, and focus all production only on aircraft types currently in service that will make a difference. In other words, I greatly expand the production of the Zero fighter by converting many other plants to produce it. The goal is to get enough zeros in service to swap out all of my Claudes as soon as possible. The impact of the zero is as it's greatest early in the war, before the allies have been able to produce their newer aircraft. Do not over produce early. Make enough to provide full TOE for arriving units, and to replace anticipated losses. Beyond that, turn off production that is not needed. This keeps supply from running low and prevents wasting engines.
Naval Building:
Get a calculator out. Work the numbers as you accelerate or halt construction. By careful work, you can very tightly manage construction so that you have all of the desired ships advancing, without having needed ships skip days. Avoid the tempation to expand the naval shipyard capacity. All this does is consume precious supply. Besides, if the ship isn't finished during 1942, then it probably isn't going to be a big help to you. My target is to keep unused naval construction points at under 20, often under 10, without any ships being delayed due to insufficient points.
Battleships:
I am different from many here. I always build both Yamato and Musashi. In fact, I accelerate Musashi so that she finishes shortly after Yamato. These are important ships to the Japanese strategy, and I want them as soon as possible. [&o]
Carriers:
Halt the Shinano, Ryuho, and Taiho. The first two are not worth the points, and Taiho you can gat on an accelerated schedule after Musashi if finished. I used to accelrate her from the game start, but then realised that with PDU off, you can't replace losses in her airgroup as the aircraft types will not be in production for a while. Ryuho just doesn't carry enough aircraft, and is a good hunk of victory points waiting to be given to the enemy. I might pick her back up later, if I can find a use for her. Hiyo is the only carrier worth accelerating at the start, and all of the others you can leave on normal.
Cruisers:
Accelerate CS Nisshan, Halt CL Agano.
Destroyers:
Halt the Makigumo and Kazegumo. You will restart construction on them by February, but right now the critical priority is to get the radar equipped Destroyers into the fleet. Japan starts the game with only CLs Oi and Kitikami equipped with radar. However, there are five destroyers under construction that are radar equipped, and you want to accelerate all of them. They are Hatsuzuki,Teruzuki,Takanami,Makinami,Naganami.
Subs:
Initially halt as many as you can. You need the construction points to pay for the other ships that you are accelerating.
Auxiliaries:
Remember to convert enough AK into ARs as you will need quite a few of these. I also convert a couple of MLE, AS, and AV. If you don't build the ARs, and acclerate construction on at least some of them immediately, you will cripple yourself by mid-42 because you will not be able to keep your ships in action.
That is enough discussion at start. I will be happy to respond to questions with specifics regarding production or other items.
On to the game in the next post......
