A midwar Japanese AAR (no USS Henrico)

[witpqs]

Interesting! I'm going to have to get some books on economics.

[Chickenboy]

Situation in Burma:

1. Prome: Action imminent. Large-ish British assault heading across the river opposite Prome. 16 units-hasn't changed much in a while. When last scouted most of these units consisted of infantry regiments-subject to disruptive losses. Not the shock troops I would choose. I suspect my forces at Prome, when combined with the disruption associated with river assault-will hold.

@ Prome: 38th, 33rd IJA ID, 12th IR, 11th Tk regiment, 16th recon regiment, 4x Art BN, 6x AA BN. 1163 AV. 5.75 Forts.

2. Lashio: Most forces held here in strategic reserve will strat move to Tongoo to repulse the expected cross-river movement by a single Allied unit. This includes 11th Div and 2,4,7,14 tank regiments. Some 655 AV.

3. Moulmein: Japanese MLR. Most units are prepped for Moulmein and will fall back rather than be cut off in Burma. There currently: 1st and 7th RTA, 30th Division, 16th IR. Some 1271 AV. HQ for 15th Army and 3rd Air Army are located here.

4. Rangoon: Lightly held by 114th IR, 6th tank regiment and some support units. HQ for 3rd Air Division, HQ Burma Area located there currently.

5. Tavoy: Lightly held. Could probably use another regiment at least. Currently an infantry battalion is the sole defensive unit here.

6. Mergui: 3rd RTA Div

7. Victoria Point: 6th RTA Division

Air power:

1. Rangoon: 2 Sentai Ki-44IIa Tojo (78F)

2. Taung Gyi and Mandalay: A chutai each of Dinahs.

3. Moulmein: 253 Ku-S1 (36 A6M3a); 54th Sentai (14 Ki-61a). Two bomber chutai normally based here (Helens and Lillys) are rebuilding in Bangkok right now.

4. Tavoy: 12 Jake recon and 27 Ki49-IIa (Helens).

Pending theatre reinforcements:

A sentai of George (N1K1-J) fighters of the 252 Ku-S1 (36F) are enroute from China. These guys are filled with some pretty good pilots, including those hitherto cooling their heels in TRACOM. They're the best bomber killers I have at this point.

Naval theatre reserve:

Singapore: 10xCV; 3xCVL; 3xCVE; 7xBB; 9xCL; 52xDD; 9xSS

[Chickenboy]

Burma theatre August 23 1943

[Q-Ball]

It is interesting to see an AAR around defending the Empire, because there aren't many. And hardly any on best defensive tactics and dispositions. What bases do you expand and garrison? How do you arrange air units? How do you arrange picket and early warning forces? Very interesting.

You're definitely ahead in ships losses, particularly in CVs.

What CVs do you have in the water? If you aggressively accelerate, you should have Taiho, and 2-3 Unryu's in the water

[Chickenboy]

Hi Q-ball,

Well, I got the game I was looking for-a defensive battle mid-late war with my fleet (and army for that matter) largely intact.

Here are the CV, CVL and CVEs currently avaible. Katsuragi arrives in 30 days. Amagi and Unryu are out, so that should get me to 3 Unryu-class CVs by mid September.

As I indicated above, I've converted all CS ships to CVLs-the earliest arrives in two weeks.

I expect the RN, which has been very very quiet all game to move in support of the Burma offensive campaign. This, and the presence of fuel, have my default home base for the time being at Singapore. Until recently, Manila or-one of your favorite 'surprise' home bases- Davao were used.

[Mac Linehan]

Chickenboy -

Good AAR - for all the listed reasons. While I have no personal experience this far into the game, I do believe that you are doing very well. Hang in there and keep us wannabes updated - this gives us hope.

Good on you, Sir!

Mac

[Chickenboy]

Thanks, Mac. Welcome aboard!

[Chickenboy]

I mentioned a large carrier battle which occured in May 1943 earlier. I'll try to find more on it (screenshots) later, but here was the approximation of damage done immediately after the fact.


Ship: Torpedoes: Bombs: Sunk?:
CV Hornet 1 2
CV Enterprise 4 0 Yes
CV Lexington 3 2
CV Wasp 4 Yes
CVE Suwanee 4 Yes
CVE Chenago 6 Yes
CVE Long Island 1
BB South Dak. 1 2
BB Washington 5 3 Yes
BB North Carolina 3
BB Massachusetts 2
CA Louisville 3
CL Leander 3
DMS Hovey 7 Yes
DMS Trevor 5 Yes
DMS Lamberton 4
DMS Hamilton 1
APD Crosby 2
APD Waters 5 Yes
AKA Virgo 4
xAP Van Neck 5 Yes
xAP Ilios 3
xAP Siberg 4
LST 461 3
LST 463 4

Formatting is a bit wonky, but you get the idea. This occured just Northeast of Darwin-near Tanna and Taberfane islands. North Carolina is, I believe, sunk at this point.

Substantial damage to two other CVs (Hornet and Lexington), BB Massachusetts and CA Louisville will keep them in the yards for some time.

Return damage from the Allies was minor. Two Japanese CVLs with one bomb hit apiece which was repaired within a month.

ETA: All hits on everything below CA Louisville were bomb hits-the formatting is off on those.

[Chickenboy]

SWPAC update:

This has been the most active theatre between November 1942 and present. In November 1942, my opponent capitalized on an oversight of mine and reinforced the base on the SW side of P/NG-north of PM. From there, he delivered a troop quantity sufficient to overland march units to Port Moresby. An Allied amphibious assault accompanied this overland march.

A subsequent amphibious assault pushed light defenses out of Milne Bay.

After PM, he marched approximately 4 division equivalents across the Owen Stanleys to Buna and then turned his attention north. Again, he marched 4 divisions north towards Salamua and eventually Lae and Finschafen. All of these were captured by overland march of roughly four division equivalents.

I'm not going to cry over spilt milk, but the supply rules allowing such movement are nonsense and have no bearing on reality. But, that's where we find ourselves.

4th ID and some smaller units were mauled during the fighting. 4th ID has been rebuilding on Palau for several months and is healing up nicely. A few smaller base units and SNLF were destroyed outright in the fighting for P/NG.



Defenses in theatre:

Stiff defenses N of this screenshot centered on Hollandia and Aitape. 2nd Guards at the latter. An infantry division and support on the Admiralties. Rabaul is held by approximately 240 AV-comparatively light. I've been considering reinforcement in light of my opponent's movements.

Rabaul's AF is in the next post.

5th ID was at Lunga since early 1942. I've removed 2/3 of this division and various support units from Lunga to Truk. Tulagi is lightly held. As their strategic value wanes, I've pulled back units voluntarily towards more defensible positions. A Ki-44IIa sentai and A6M3a chutai are present for air defense.

My goal in and around P/NG is to bend and not break. Delay, dig in, fall back and keep his eye fixed on this worthless piece of jungle rot. It's worked to keep his focus for almost a full year in the war. I'm hoping I can buy another 6-12 months with this while I strengthen the second MLR to the North.

[Chickenboy]

Rabaul air:

[Chickenboy]

Gilberts and Marshalls:

Absolute deadsville. Nada. Not a whisper.

There are a few garrison regiments in the area: one on Naura and one on Ocean island. I also took the liberty of splitting the Wake CD group to put ~1/2 on Tarawa. It's not a game changer, but I like the little extra 'stinger' surprise if he tries to take it on the cheap.

Otherwise, I have not beefed up defenses much, but am considering Ponape as a regional fallback bastion to the East of Truk.

[Chickenboy]

8/23/43:

CentPac: near Guam: SC Ch35 successfully damages SS Trout with 5 DC hits, including a direct "critical damage" hit. This momentous occasion marks a rare effective ASW intercept by an SC class.

China: Heavy Japanese forces SE of Kweiyang (hex 75,50) move NW towards the city. Kweiyang is filled with retreated Chinese units. They will be evicted in short order by the 4,696 AV on approach, including the equivalent of 10 IJA IDs. This is the main IJ effort in China.

P/NG: Gasmata is being bombed daily. May be a harbinger to a naval assault.

Burma: Expecting the river crossing any day now. I think that, next turn, I'll put together a bombardment TF or two and pay a visit to Aykab and / or Ramree island, both of which are Allied fighter bases at this time. KB will run static.

Economy: NY59Giants has kingly plugged my game values into Tracker and provided me with useful feedback. It seems that while my resource, oil and fuel were as I described, their presence on Honshu is in question.

I believe that the screens that I use only demonstrate the quantities of oil, fuel or resources throughout the empire. That's different, isn't it?

The Japanese economy is running on too rich a mixture on Honshu. I have reduced HI on Honshu significantly and will forego buttressing my surplus whilest this deficit corrects. I have also turned off all HI in Manchuko, as this was draining fuel from Port Arthur.

I still believe that production of HI is THE goal for the Japanese side, but I don't want to burn out the economy at the beginning of 1944 in so doing. Better slow down a bit.

Honshu resources have also been identified as comparatively low. I have also detailed a number of large cargo TFs to focus on getting resources from Hokkaido, Port Arthur, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Formosa, Manila and Singapore. Having resources scattered in (albeit safe) remote ports is insufficient. Honshu is in need. Honshu will get it.

[ny59giants]

Here is the Fuel situation via Tracker. My own game using Scenario 2 has me with 3x the fuel as ChickenBoy (Andre), but half the Heavy Industry.

[ny59giants]

Here is the Oil and Resource situation via Tracker.

[ny59giants]

A Global look via Tracker.

[ny59giants]

Now, another Japanese economy (mine) in the same month.

[obvert]

ORIGINAL: ny59giants

Now, another Japanese economy (mine) in the same month.

Interested in the difference in total oil numbers. How is yours so much higher? Isn't this a kind of finite resource for Japan?

[ny59giants]

Interested in the difference in total oil numbers. How is yours so much higher? Isn't this a kind of finite resource for Japan?

Scenario 2 is more forgiving for the Japanese economy than Scenario 1. Pull them both up and look at what you start with. Why I have 1 million more than CB is a big question on how much damage his Oil centers were when he captured them. The big difference, IMO, is the amount of fuel I have (6 million) to his (2 million). I go against some of my fellow Japanese economic ministers and want a large surplus of fuel vs oil. I would rather have the fuel generated at Palembang than have to transport the oil back to Japan. Plus, the oil takes longer to load than fuel. I have 2 Tanker TFs with those 7950 capacity TKs as CS convoys going from Palembang to Singapore and then send in those small 1250 capacity TKs every once in a while to pick up the extra oil.

Right now, CB is reporting a surplus of 6k in daily Heavy Industry production. I suggested he cut it back to around 4k per day. If all Oil and Fuel shipments were to stop now, he would be out of Oil/Fuel at Honshu in less than 100 days. So much for him to be able to send his warships out of port. [X(]

[Mike Solli]

ORIGINAL: Chickenboy

Economy: NY59Giants has kingly plugged my game values into Tracker and provided me with useful feedback. It seems that while my resource, oil and fuel were as I described, their presence on Honshu is in question.

I believe that the screens that I use only demonstrate the quantities of oil, fuel or resources throughout the empire. That's different, isn't it?

The Japanese economy is running on too rich a mixture on Honshu. I have reduced HI on Honshu significantly and will forego buttressing my surplus whilest this deficit corrects. I have also turned off all HI in Manchuko, as this was draining fuel from Port Arthur.

I still believe that production of HI is THE goal for the Japanese side, but I don't want to burn out the economy at the beginning of 1944 in so doing. Better slow down a bit.

Honshu resources have also been identified as comparatively low. I have also detailed a number of large cargo TFs to focus on getting resources from Hokkaido, Port Arthur, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Formosa, Manila and Singapore. Having resources scattered in (albeit safe) remote ports is insufficient. Honshu is in need. Honshu will get it.

Yeah, I agree, HI is the goal. I seem to recall that the "stuff" stats have always included the entire empire, but this ole brain has been an antique for a while now (>50 yrs old).

Did you pull oil/fuel out of China/Manchuoko/Korea (C/M/K)? I don't understand why people do that. C/M/K runs at an oil/fuel deficit from day one. Eventually, it'll have to be shipped in to keep the HI running. I think that's a problem many Japanese players create for themselves early. They see all that oil and fuel sitting at Pt. Arthur and ship it to Honshu. I did in the early days. Now I don't touch it. All my fuel and oil comes from the SRA and Shikuka.

Honshu is definitely a resource hog. I believe we need to start shipping resources from day one and never stop. I take every resource I can find (to include Nauru and Ocean) and get it to Japan. I'm even rebuilding my resource centers this game, something I've never done before.

Many people say there is a glut of Japanese shipping. I don't believe that to be the case. I guess it's just my way of doing business.

This is a great AAR CB! Love it!

[obvert]

ORIGINAL: ny59giants

Interested in the difference in total oil numbers. How is yours so much higher? Isn't this a kind of finite resource for Japan?

Scenario 2 is more forgiving for the Japanese economy than Scenario 1. Pull them both up and look at what you start with. Why I have 1 million more than CB is a big question on how much damage his Oil centers were when he captured them. The big difference, IMO, is the amount of fuel I have (6 million) to his (2 million). I go against some of my fellow Japanese economic ministers and want a large surplus of fuel vs oil. I would rather have the fuel generated at Palembang than have to transport the oil back to Japan. Plus, the oil takes longer to load than fuel. I have 2 Tanker TFs with those 7950 capacity TKs as CS convoys going from Palembang to Singapore and then send in those small 1250 capacity TKs every once in a while to pick up the extra oil.

Right now, CB is reporting a surplus of 6k in daily Heavy Industry production. I suggested he cut it back to around 4k per day. If all Oil and Fuel shipments were to stop now, he would be out of Oil/Fuel at Honshu in less than 100 days. So much for him to be able to send his warships out of port. [X(]

Wow. I didn't notice total fuel. That's a massive difference. Yes. I see it makes sense to have a bit more around.

I've just been shipping everything I can back, other than the fuel for the So Pac area. I don't know enough to see why this would not be the best option.

It is tough to load the oil at Palembang. I tried the large tankers, but they took weeks to load! Now I've moved to using the smallest ones and getting it to Singapore.