Global War : a Japanese AAR

[yvesp]

The winter weather is extremely good, and the Russian thank god that they could prevent an axis attack in the last year.

Meanwhile, Mussolini is becoming nervous as the British take control of Sardinia with extreme ease, destroying a motorized corps in the process.

These events should not really affect the Japanese strategy, but the weakness of the western allies is concerning: The commonwealth could really prove more annying tan expected. Already malaysia is not going to be initially targetted: with four corps in defense, it is already to tough to crack easily. And the East Indies are again garrisoned: they will not be that easy to capture.

[yvesp]

The Chinese army could not retreat fast enough and is caught by the japanese troops of Yamamoto. The late winter is a killer...

In Tchang, the Japanese make a new slaughter which the US news realte in great details. The US pick a 5 chit.

[yvesp]

The pincer that catches Changsha is now extremely difficult to break. Unless the turn ends (unlikely), another infantry is already lost. The two militias from Shangaï and Canton will try to run away through the mountains if they have time : they cannot be rebuilt either.

[yvesp]

Outraged by the Tchang affair, the US president consults his staff. He watches carefully his current options. He has not yet passed the law of War appropriation which is still on the drawing board and won't be passed before at least two months. It's clear that declaring war won't happen before at least four turns using the normal means.

With his counsil, he carefully considers the chits he has. There are many chits in the Japanese pool, many being small. His staff explains that they don't believe they can get the congress approve of the war. Les than 10% chance they say.

It doesn't matter, and Roosevelt decides on taking the risk.

[yvesp]

As expected, the Japanese (and Americans too!!!) are quite taken by surprise. They are not ready, and they decide to terminate the offensive in China. It will take extremely long for the Chinese to recover from that blow. Yamashita uses the offensive chit for that purpose. An isolated and disorganized unit is overrun while Yamamotos army closes on te back of the Chinese. Hopefully, the marines have had time to come back to Canton and are now ready.

Meanwhile, the US fleet in Honolulu has safely sailed back to Auckland, joining the more modern elements. However, the fleet is far from functionnal : many aircraft carriers are loaded with obsolete planes.

[yvesp]

The attack by Yamamoto's troops is a success : Changsha is almost isolated.

[yvesp]

But despite his offensive, Yamashita fails in Changsha.
Chiang would have chosen a blitz attack if it had been possible : this might have been costly for the Japanese. But since there is no escape route, this was too dangerous...

[yvesp]

The incredible winter goes on with more fine weather. Its the foruth impulse and there seem to be no end of it! I count that this is a one out of 100 occurence! It will have been extremely costly to the Chinese, but the German commanders watch this with some sadness!

The Chinese will try to salvage what they can from teh Japanese offensive, while nothing much will happen elsewhere.

The Commonwealth consider a preemptive declaration of war against Japan, but curiously this annoys the USA... (this cost two chits removed, and the allies still need them) : OK, so they want to fight it alone!

[yvesp]

ORIGINAL: composer99

Although reaching the Szechwan region doesn't look like it's in the cards, it looks like the Japanese' passive early-game strategy will at least net them one, if not two, of what I would consider the three main reasonable objectives in China, namely control of the Changsha-Nanning railway and resources and an unobstructed north-south rail link.

Only the third, control of Sian, appears to be out of reach.

These two objective are indeed close to being fulfilled.
However, going to Sian is something I find too expensive.
Yet, once finished with the Nationalist Chinese, it is quite possible that the Japanese will find some time to tackle the communists.

Note that the successes also held in large part to rather good rolls. Even the bad rolls, such as the failure to take Changsha, have been nice: overall, the Japanese have not lost many units. I did not count exactly, but it is three or four cheap units I believe.

If they have the same kind of luck in the next summer, they may well capture Sian. As always, I won't attack recklessly. The status-quo is quite satisfiying for the Japanese. Especially now that they are close to controlling two more resources. Better 5 resources and no losses than 6 resources that cost many units in fights. In any case, the Chinese can now be tamed with but some strategic bombardment raids. It's likely that careful attacks will attrition the Communist Chinese army enough that at some point it will just crumble like the nationalist army did.

[yvesp]

On their part, the Japanese don't have qualms.
They know they have a small window of opportunity to act before the USA are ready. They declare war on te Commonwealth and choose a combined action. This will probably let the remaining Chinese unit escape, but capturing now the Netherland East indies while nobody can oppose is of outmost importance.

The invasion of Batavia is well supported by the fleet's battleships and carrier planes. It is a complete success.
That's four oil that will soon be flowing down to Japan.

[yvesp]

Very nice ; the plugin crashed while I had a long post.
Too bad because I don't remember half of it.

Rant
I want a new production planning interface.
To make things short, the allies lost 3BP because of its bugs.
I'm going nuts!
End of Rant.

Japan conquers Rabaul.

Japan builds:
2 convoys
1 militia
1 garrison
3 carrier air (1 at cost 0)
1 pilot
1 nav3

China builds:
1 infantry

The Commonwealth builds:
4 convoys
1 transport (infrastructures)
1 carrier (infrastures)
3 carriers planes (one at 0 cost)
2 pilots
6 territorials
1 mechanized

The USA build:
1 Yorktown ii (superstructures)
1 Bunker Hill (superstructures)
1 Essex (superstructures)
1 transport
1 pilot
1 carrier air
1 sub
1 armor
1 mech
1 mot
1 mountain
1 infantry

Somehow I messed up something here: gearing limit for planes is at one! that's awfull and loses most of the 42 production... The USA won't have enough carrier planes!) nor enough land based air... Japan will do what it wants: the US fleet won't move for a long time!
I'll be able to build only 18 planes in the year, where I'd need at least the double (counting carrier planes, many of which are crap and go straight in the reserves)

[yvesp]

The marines reembrak immediately, ceding their place to a mechanized unit in charge of the security, especially considering that a south african corps is still menacing.

But attacking now the Philippinoes while the weather is good is very important.

The landing is perfect, but now Manilla must be captured, and that is not the easiest part.

Annoyingly, this required a combined move, so that the convoys are protected only by some navs. That's good, but hardly enough against 3 roaming subs... The best choices are difficult to make : if the USA fail again their search, this will prove a smart move. But if they find and surprise the convoys, this will look as a heavy mistake!

[yvesp]

Indeed, the US subs close on the Japanese merchant fleet.

Anyway, the damage they do would not have been avoided. But the retaliation could have been stronger!

[yvesp]

The Japanese find the time to capture Changsha.
This should put an end to most operations in South China.
In the north, the lazy objective will now be to conquer Sian.
Anyway, the Japanese don't exclude more attacks on Chinese units, which will now be difficult to replace: the current attack costs again many turns of reinforcements for China...

[yvesp]

The weather being exceedingly bad, the Germans wait for declaring war on the USSR. The USA prefer waiting too ; the gain is small (some more BP for probably only one turn), while there is only one tension chit in the pool. Failing would probably push the declaration of war against Germany by more than one turn, while the next turn will likely have a chance of 70%.

Japan builds:
- 1 inf
- 2 carriers
- 4 carrier air (one at 0 cost)
- 1 armor HQ
- 1 nav4
- 1 pilot

China builds:
- 2 inf

The Commonwealth builds:
- 1 carrier (infrastructures)
- 2 carriers (superstructures)
- 3 pilots
- 4 convoys
- 3 carrier planes
- 1 Lnd4
- 1 inf HQ (india)
- 1 motorized
- 3 territorial

The USA build:
- 2 carriers (superstructures)
- 2 transports (supertructures)
- 2 carrier air (cost 2)
- 1 armor HQ
- 1 para
- 2 pilots
- 1 battleship (infrastructures)
- 1 infantry
- 2 BP for France

This turn, the Commonwealth also liberated Syria and Senegal. Vichy is almost now restricted to the metroplolitan area.
China is proposed to surrender, which it does not.

[yvesp]

This is an important moment in the war : the weather in March is clear, and Germany declares war on Russia.

Everybody expects the USA to follow with their own war declaration on Germany.

The situation here is just before the attack declaration. The Russian line is as robust as it can : everything is on board, including all militias...

Japan had a contrariety : it was forced to choose a combined, because the Burmese territorial is one move away from Bangkok. It's not like Siam is that important, but it would be a bad omen to have it fall!

[yvesp]

Barbarossa has strated under good omens ; no German losses, and a reasonnable amount of Russian losses. This many loss each impulse is fine for germany!

[yvesp]

The USA had a 80% chance of declaring war on Germany at the start of the turn. The declaration of war by Germnay on Russia lowered that to 60%.

Anyway, it would have failed...

After removing one entry chit and one tension chit, the odds remain at 60%.

[yvesp]

In the South China sea, the US subs don't find any prey.
But in the North China sea, they are surprised by a bunch of pattroling navs. They don't survive.

[yvesp]

In the Coral sea, an large battle beetween three imperial cruisers and three British cruisers happens. The battle is more important than it looks, because the imperial cruisers carry an invasion force, certainly headed for some harm!

The imerail navy is surprised by the British, and the escorting cruiser gets sunk, protecting the other two cruisers, one of which must turn tail.