Some prior notes on Japan's strategic considerations can be found on posts #50-54 on the
old thread.
To condense these notes somewhat for this AAR:
Japan Overall Strategy Notes
Objective(s)
I must confess this subtitle is a pun, referring as it does both to the in-game phenomenon of objective hexes, and to Japan's goals for this game:
- Japan's primary goal is to run out the clock on the Allies, ideally with 6 or more objective hexes under its control.
- Japan aspires to defend each objective hex (except possibly Truk and Rabaul) with two strong corps and a division.
- Japan aspires to maintain a convoy line keeping oil flowing and resources shipping to Japan. If Japan can keep producing units, it stands a chance at pulling a draw or even a win out of this grim situation.
Advantages
Japan has a few advantages in this latter stage of the game:
- China is the only major power that can focus on Japan. The others have to fight Germany, too, and particularly this summer the US and CW will probably need to focus almost exclusively on Germany in order to get an army ashore in France to stay.
- The Allies have a dearth of sealift, and for reasons immediately discussed most of it has to start in the European theatre. As such, any losses will be crippling, until next summer when new transport units would arrive.
- Apart from China, the Allies begin with very few land units in theatre. Here again any losses would be crippling, and the Allies need time and production to bring more units in.
- For their part, the Chinese land units are generally of poor quality, especially the Nationalists who suffer from attack weakness.
- Japan has ways to slow down the Allied advance: naval pickets at sea and speedbumps on land. These will waste Allied time and cause the Allies to have to sail into lower boxes if they want to reach the Japanese core, giving Japan a tactical advantage at sea.
- Japan's carrier fleet, though eroded, is still a threat when combined with land-based air.
Disadvantages
- Japan itself is pulled in multiple directions. It has to perform naval or combined impulses to act against the US and CW, but it also has to perform land impulses to deal with the Soviet Union and China.
- For its part, Japan has almost no sealift (1 TRS and 1 AMPH). This makes naval reinforcements a very slow affair (possibly too slow); likely as not it means Japan cannot both reinforce its overseas objective hexes and maintain a viable counter-invasion force simultaneously.
- Japan is also woefully short of land and air units with which to defend its objective hexes and sea areas, to say nothing of Japan itself.
- Japanese production depends on overseas shipping, requiring Japan to maintain and protect fragile convoy lines.
- Japan begins with low oil reserves, meaning it has little resilience to withstand cut oil lines.
- If Japanese production is cut, perhaps even for a single turn, and especially if Japan's oil is out of play, it can spell disaster.
Giving Up Objectives
- As discussed in the other thread, Japan can give up up to 4 objective hexes and still win (as long as Germany meets or exceeds its own required objective hex total).
- To that end, Japan is prepared to leave Truk and Rabaul out to dry, making a minimal effort to reinforce them and keep them in supply, in the hopes that the Allies spend their time taking them.
- If all goes well, what with being distracted by Germany, the Allies will end 1944 having taken only those two hexes.
- Japan may then have the time and space to reinforce its other objective hexes and prepare to make a stiff fight of it when the Allies finally do come after them.
