2ndACR (allies) vs dennishe (japan) - the war is on!

[dennishe]

This will be an AAR of the game that I'm playing against 2ndACR. Everybody is welcome except for 2ndACR, since I will be discussing my strategy here. This is the first time that i will play as Japan and the first time I will play Nikmod. We will see how things go....

Central Pacific: Pearl Harbor was attacked on the first day. I sank the Nevada and hit every other battleship at PH. Two of them were heavy damaged and got more hits that the Nevada. I hope to get confirmation soon that I sunk some more. In the attack I only lost 7 Vals. Many other planes were damaged though. I think it was a pretty good raid. KB is now sailing to Wake, were it will support an invasion, which will take place at the end of the first week. After that KB will support further actions in the pacific.

Hong Kong: Hong Kong fell after 3 days. 2 British destroyers were scuttled. The other was sunk by a Japanese air raid.

The Philipins: I'm establishing a huge airbase at Aparri, from were I can further support the invasion of the Phillipins. No hurry here. 2ndACR is withdrawing his troops to either Manilla or Bataan. I will set up a blokkade and let him starve. No need to take the Phillipins fast.

DEI: I took Amboina on day one. Kuching will also be taken in the first week. Here huge airbases will be set up, from where I can hit every ship in the DEI. This will make it difficult for him to transport troops and oil around and to use his surface fleet against to intercept my invasions. Brunei, Jolo, Kendari are further targets that will be taken asap.

Malaya: I established a big air force base in Songkia. Unfortunately it came one day to late. At day 1 one of the British torpedo planes put a torpedo in the Kongo, which was damaged and will be out of action for quite a while. She will live though. I'm getting troops on land and then I will marsh to Singapore. Also here I will make him starve to death. Taking the resource and oil centers will have my absolute priority.

Southwest pacific: Rabaul will be invaded in the first week. Here I will set up a huge base. I'm reinforcing my troops in the area with an additional division. I want to take Port Moresby. This will make things a hell of a lot easier to defend the area and stall 2ndACR here for a long time.

South Pacific: I'm planning to set up a Japanese base early on. Here I will station Nell bombers and use them to attack US shipping going to OZ. Further actions will be postponed until the SRA is secured.

China: I don't like fighting in China too much. I will try to take the north, where there are a lot of resources. Further I will strip China from some of its troops and send them elsewhere.

economics: I have made a spreadsheet will all Japanese production data and the amount of resources and oil in some major Japanese production facilities. Hopefully this will make me realise early on if things are going wrong here. I didn't change to much. I increased armament a little and stopped or halted all obsolete planes and planes with unusual engines. I'm only making Nakajima's and Mitshibishi's. Also the Kawasaki engine's are being produced for when the Tony's come. Production of Zeros, Vals, Kates, Bettys and Helens are increased.

[Rob Brennan UK]

Hi . I played 2ndACR a while back (him as japan) he's a v v good player imo. good luck

EDIT

yes we did a NikMod game too , however i disliked the heavy AA (esp vs dive bombers) which i hope has been fixed so we ended prematurely (should have tried it vs the AI first TBH) my shame

[dennishe]

Playing with Japan is difficult. Apparently, I haven't planned things too well. After 10 days Palau and Taan have ran out of supplies and my advances have stopped. Supply fleets are on the way, but it will take a few days before I can lauch further invasions from these bases.
 
China: The battle of Yenen has begun. My assault strenght is slightly better than 2ndACRs, but I need more to take it. 4 more divisions are on the way.
 
Philipins: I control the very north of Luzon with an airbase at Aparri. From there I'm attacking various bases in the Philipins. An invasion fleet to take Jolo is 2 days away. Here I will set up a second air base and shut of the Philipins from DEI.
 
DEI: I took Kuching, Brunei and Amboina. I have to little supplies in Kuching. A supply fleet is on its way. As soon as its arrive, I will transfer my Nells and Betties there. Currently, it is being defended by one squadron of Oscars. Transport planes transfer supplies in from Indochina.
 
Malaya: Things go OK here. I cut of Georgetown and when things go OK I also will cut off the Malayain east coast within a few days. I have airbases at Songkia and khota Baru. Unfortunately, the CL Kashii was hit with two torpedo's by Vildebeest torpedoplanes. It is one hex away from Kompang Trach (or something like that) but will probably sink.
 
Central Pacific: Troops have landed at Wake, but both invasion waves had heavy losses upon the shock attack and do not have much assault power anymore. A third invasion fleet is 2 hexes away. KB has pounded the place and the airfield is closed
 
Southwest Pacific: I landed at Rabaul with 5 small infantery units. I doubt that this will be enough to take it quickly. A second wave with the 4th division (currently located at Truk) is in preparation.

[Rob Brennan UK]

All i did in china was eliminate the guerillas .. i think they re spawn in chungking .. the jap tank bttns are v good at clearing the rail/roads ..

Good Luck

[dennishe]

I want to city's in the north. They are bad defended (in the beginning of the game) and the HI and resources make it worth while.
 
2ndACR had a suprise for me at Rabaul. He brought in a carrier TF. Two CA's are in bad shape. Hopefully he will chase them. I have KB at full speed heading for GiliGili. If he is still there in 3 days, he is mine....
The worst thing was that RO61 attacked this TF twice, but shot both torpedo's at destroyers. I would have love to see it aim at the carrier.
 
On the bright side, the floatation damage of CL Kashii is going down from 94 to 88. Hopefully she will make it.

[dennishe]

12/26/1941: Things are going OK. My forces in China have been stuck at Yenen for a while and so far it doesn't look like they are making progress. Shock and deliberate attacks lead to heavy casualties. The dice just keeps on rolling the wrong site. In Rabaul, my support TF was struck back by an American carrier. He sunk one of my CAs. The others made it safely to port. A second invasion wave with the 4th Japanese division on board, escorted by KB is on the way. Rabaul will be mine soon.
 
The Philipins: 2ndACR is building up his forces at Manilla. He also sends ships there in small TFs. My planes leave them unharmed. I have several subs posting at Manilla port and also a surface TF is patrolling of coast now. Manilla air port is closed. 2ndACR used it for a while to attack my shipping with a P40E FG consisting of about 30 planes. My troops are approaching Clark field. I think this will be it for a while. I need more troops to crack his defense. First I want to secure DEI and cut off the Phillipins completely. I will keep on bombing it to eat his supplies and to prevent him from building up his forces. Jolo is mine and I'm shipping in an aviation regiment. From here I controll the skies over east borneo and the southern Phillipins. 2ndACR has not used is surface fleet yet, except for his PTs. So far they were not able to do harm and my surface fleet and strafing fighters killed/damaged most of them.
 
Malaya: Things are going OK here. I split his forces in three. One pocket is trapped in Georgetown. another at Kuantan. 2ndACR is shipping out the Aussie brigades. Some of these fully loaded ships have been sunk by my Nell bombers.
 
DEI: I took Amboina, Morotai, Mendano (North Celebes base, might be spelled completely different) and Kendari in the east. I'm building up airbases here to cut him off. I also took Kuching and Brunei. Also from here my planes are ruling the skies over DEI. With the range of the Nell and Betty bombers I can hit every base in the DEI. I hope to take Palembang, Tarakan and Balikpapan in the next few weeks. I also want to start the invasion of Java. I will use 2 divisions for this, that are currently located in HongKong and Hanoi. I don't have too many supporting troops available. Perhaps I should postpone this attack a bit. In that case I will take Kupang. This will cut of Java completely.
 
Burma: For some reason the 55th div and the imperial guards take forever to get to the next hex. Anyway I am not in a rush here. I think I will ship the Guards to Malaya though or use them for my DEI landings.
 
Pacific: I took Wake and the Gilberts. No further actions here for a while. If I can make KB and some more troops available I will go on the offensive towards Canton or some other interesting base, from which I can attack his shipping to OZ. For now my attention goes completely to DEI.
 

[dennishe]

01/26/1942: Things are going OK
 
Southwest Pacific: Rabaul, Lae, Buna and the Shortlands are taken. The 4th Division is at Buna and will march to PM. This will not be a suprise attack. 2ndACR will (and in fact does) know what is coming.
 
Malaya: 2ndACR stripped Malaya from at least 4 divisions, which he moved to Palembang. It fell halfway januari.
 
Phillipins: A big mess. I have 3 divisions there. It will take a long time before I have taken it. No hurry here. His troops are starving (soon). His ports are blokked by several submarines. In a few months I will break his defenses.
 
DEI. I control most of Borneo, except for the very south. Kendari, Amboina, Mendano, Jolo are all mine. The invasion of Palembang, which has been turned into a fortress is underway. I have betty and nell bombers stationed everywhere. The Imperial Guards landed followed by several brigades. I will bring in more troops soon. The invasion is covered by KB and a surface task force, which consists of 5 CA's and the Haruna. I hope that my advances are not stalled for too long at Palembang. I think 2ndACR will try to reinforce Java if he gets the chance.
 
China: I took Yenen. It cost me a lot of time and units. My troops are moving further north.
 
Burma: My troops advanced to Rangoon.

[dennishe]

Early April 1942:

2ndACR decided to fight instead of withdrawing his troops. He stripped Malaya and transfered troops to Palembang and Java. Things are (still) going OK now, but I do not know for how long....

The Phillipins: I brought in (too) little troops in the Phillipins. I have most of the small islands under control except for 2 where PA divs are stationed. The 19th division (taken from Korea) is concering the southern main island. The battle of Luzon is going slowly. 2ndACR only holds Manilla. Deliberate attacks go 1:1 now and he does not have fortresses anymore. It should fall soon.

Malaya and the DEI: 2ndACR stripped Malaya from troops. Singapore fell very quickly and smoothly. Also Palembang, which was reinforced fell swiftly. All troops from Malaya and the reserve divisions stationed in Japan were brought in into Java, which was heavily defended. I do not know exactly which troops are there yet, but there is at least the 18th UK division and lotst of troops from Malaya. I landed at Kragen. This gave me the time to take the base quickly. I do not want to know what would have happened if the 18th UK division would have shown up before i took the base. My troops would have been pinned down at the beach for days and I would have lost many more ships to reinforce them. Now reinforcements could unload instead of land at a hostile beach. The operation was supported by KB the full time. 2ndACR had a large amount of his air force stationed at Java and they sank a lot of shipping. Especially his torpedo planes scored a lot of kills. KB managed to sink a large part of the RN fleet, including 3 BB's and several cruisers. From Palembang I'm pounding Batavia and some more bases in the north. In the south I took Soerabaja and have 200+ fighters at Kragen, which is a size-3 AFB now. Malang will fall soon (hopefully). I'm glad I started operations in Java early (feb 1942). If he got more time to bring in a few more divisions, he could have made my life really difficult. His air force dissapeared recently, which makes me wondering whether he is up to something. Now I have bases at Java, I do not need KB anymore. 2 CVs are slightly damaged. The remainder is regrouping and will be reinforced by new CVLs from Tokyo. From there I will support further actions in the Pacific.

Southeast Pacific: I controll most of the Solomon islands and the north of New Guinea. The 4th division marched to PM (KB was occupied and with his carriers nearby I did not dare to sail to it), but arrived there just too late. 2ndACR reinforced it with the 7th OZ division a few days after my arrival. I won't take it. I hold Lunga, but 2ndACR has a NZ brigade there. It has not been resupplied for a while. I have miniKB and some BB's at Rabaul to counter any suppy fleet to Lunga. In one of these counter attacks miniKB send a torpedo in Big E, which will be out of action for a while. As soon as Manilla falls I will start a large offensive here, or bypass it and go straight for Suva and Noumea.

Central & north Pacific: I took Wake and the Gilberts. No further actions yet. I'm reinforcing Wake, Saipan and Kwajalein in case 2ndACR makes a bold move.

Burma: I took Rangoon and stopped my offensive there. All my troops are occupied in Java and the Phillipins. I don't want to send my last reserves to combat yet. I need them for to counter a possible allied attack. 2ndACR knows how to count. He knows that most of my troops are occupied. Hopefully Manilla will fall briefly. I have almost enough supply points to activate a large division from China (I have 3090 political points). When necessary I can immediately bring in a smaller division.

China: Yenen cost me a lot of time. 2ndACR reinforced the rest of the area. I stopped further advances. It costed me too many troops, vehicles and armament, which I need for other campaigns. I do not want my economy work at full speed yet, when it is not necessary. I have a supply of about 100 planes for every type of aircraft that I use. No need for large pools. I do have a large engine pool though. I try to save resources and oil as well. Things are going smoothly here. Armament points, manpower points and heavy industry points are increasing daily.