Global War : a Japanese AAR

[yvesp]

And a loaded carrier is sunk in port.

Will it be better to lauch the fleet against the allied fleets ?
No, we have seen how this turns against a small part of the allied fleet.
The trick would be to launch raids. But these would have to bypass the allied fleets.

Oh well...

[yvesp]

Having nothing better to do in this very likely last impulse, the British and USA launch a carpet bombing attack in Japan, which succeeds in removing an elite infantry corps. That's unexpected for a winter attack.

[yvesp]

Incoming British bombers do the same in Bangkok.
As a result, the city will fall this impulse, and Siam will be conquered this turn.
An unexpected and usefull event, although not of great military importance.

[yvesp]

The western allies ponder a long time whether attacking Berlin. But the double penalty of a 3 factory city combined with winter really makes the operation a chancy one. At best a +3 assault, assuming Germany cannot pass its remaining planes in defense and the all remaining allied planes succeed. More likely something like +1 or +2. Failure would cost a para and probably a much necessary engineer. Not really worth it.

The Russians would like to attack Berlin, but their forces are recovering from the previous assault. Instead, they start reducing the southern pocket: better not let planes refuel there... Furthermore, it would not be smart not to use the huge advantage that winter gives! a +3 bonus in this case...

[yvesp]

The British finally decide on attacking Manila in the rain. The disorganized Japanese corps convinced them that this was a good opportunity: the added bonus combined with the reduced value for the disorganized out of supply non elite corps makes the combat manageable by smaller forces than planned. With the support of a HQ and a paradropping division, the city falls. The british choose a retreat rather than a shatter result: it is useless to teleport the Japanese unit back in Japan! better leave them live their life in the jungle...

[yvesp]

In Rome, the allies crush a powerfull rebellion.

[yvesp]

And another useless island is captured.
Actually not that useless: these make good bases for planes in transit, and sometimes can be used to good effect: one of the planes that successfully carpet bombed Bankok flew from such an island...

[yvesp]

The turn does not end!
However, the axis not wanting to take the risk of another impulse decides to pass. What to do anyway ? Whatever could possibly be achieved is hardly worth the risk of a new impulse wit good weather, whose effect would be desastrous!

The losses for the turn show the continuous erosion of the axis forces.
And this during a very bad weather turn! The worst is to come now...

[yvesp]

This game is hopeless.
20 months after its release, its sluggishness in the end of the game is a killer.

Anyway, I'm once more stuck with the US fleet in the Japanese coast, where the game stupidly is unable to locate any available port within range! Oh, well, how did it sail in the firt place ? It came from as far as Brisbane and it cannot find its way back to Port Arthur ? Come on! The game loops forever there, and ends up sending me a popup that says that the game seems to be stuck. Yeah, I know that one: the poor's man solution out of a bug you cannot fathom. But the bug is not solved. Killing the game with the process manager works as well...

Well, that's good for the Japanese: it's almost just like they destroyed 7 carriers, 2 battleships and 6 cruisers.

I'll have to replay the whole stay at sea phase so that this fleet remains in this sea area. That will work for the next impulse. After that, who knows ? Will it be able to move away ?

[yvesp]

Ahem...
More news.

No, actually no bug in the return o base phase... after 8 minutes and 49 seconds, the game consents to let me move the US fleet back in Port Arthur. How does it use this time ? I wonder...

But there was a bug in the return to base after the naval combat: the game definitely refused to let me abort, with a popup that said esc to return to the previous choice, or back to destroy the selected units: that did not work at all. Or maybe the game was doing it in background and it would have worked 10mn later ? Who knows ?

So I can continue the game normally.

For those of you who are curious, here is a map of the pacific just after the US fleet in the Japanese Coast lands in Port Arthur; it was in the 1 box and contained units with range 5 and speed 5 or 6 (which makes the whole stack 5/5)

Weather is snow in north temperate and in artic, rain in North moonsoon, storm in South moonsoon, rain in south temperate.
The following ports are within range and can accomodate the whole fleet: Port Arthur, Singapore, Calcutta, Trincomalee, Honolulu. I play with rough seas, which makes much the southern hemisphere unreacheable. I also play with in the presence of the enemy, but as this is the return to base phase and the US are contesting the marianas, the Japanese units don't slow the US units down: so Brisbane can been reached through the Marianas (the rough seas penalty only applies once) ; I did not check if that was the case.

[yvesp]

The weather clears up in May, and the allies keep the initiative.

In China, the Japanese situation is desperate: supplies still don't flow, and previous attempts were not that successful: to reopen the supply lines requires a naval or combined: on the impulse where supply is reopened, at most 3 land units can move. However, there is about 50% chance that the allies can sink the convoys on the impulse they move, and the same chance on the allies next impulse. That gives only a 25% chance of pulling out a land impulse to retreat the army... So as as a consequence, the army in China is almost doomed. Worse, because it went so far inside China, there is even little possibility of salvaging even one unit back to Japan...

This confirms my opinion that the war in China is both useless and hopeless: the Japanese have better do the minimal job in China rather that attempt to advance there: in the end, any small gain in terms of resources is lost when the army becomes PoW at the end of the game. It would be worth it if China were fully conquered, but this is a very unlikely event: China is too large, too far from Japan, too well protected by rivers and mountains.

Here, we can see that the Japanese units in northern China are all but lost, the Chinese infiltrating far, far behind the Japanese units stuck in place.

[yvesp]

In southern China, the Japanese have long lost Hong Kong, and Canton is at risk. The army now has a hard time retreating: the weather does not help, nor does the terrain.

[yvesp]

From all the objectives that were laid down some posts before, Saigon, Batavia and Diego Garcia remain. In one turn, the allies have managed to conquer three objectives. The task for this turn is to capture Diego Suarez, Batavia, Shangai and possibly Saigon: this would terminate the reconquest of all objectives outside Japan. Saigon seems the most unlikey: its conquest can probably be postponed until next turn at little risk, leaving the Chinese a chance to liberate Vietnam themselves.

[yvesp]

The Russians expect to at last succceed in the capture of Berlin, and they should take an interest to the conquest of Finland; it is a bit late for that, but with some offensives in July/August, the Finnish army should shatter.
In the meantime, the allies have the task of conquering Hamburg, the last German city with factories after Berlin. This is not that easy, considering how packed the remains of the German army are. While it can hardly attack, capturing any hex is long and difficult! Furthermore, the German air force has been reinforced by new planes (which come on board with oil...), so that the skies are not yet clear: The best fighter in the game (rating 10) is now defending Berlin.

[yvesp]

Another very long naval phase; moving all these land units around and planning for the turn invasions while protecting the ships is a lengthy process.
The allies choose to keep as low a profile as possible, and sortie only a handful of carriers in the North China sea and not one ship more than necessary to support planned invasions.
The Japanese will have another tough choice for their fleet: either move to destroy ships in non essential sea areas, achiecing tactical success but missing the real fight, or sortiing in more risky places, either of the China seas, where it could possibly achieve something (probably not that much) while risking a severe counterattack. Meanwhile, the allied invasions will have been carried out, thanks to both offensives (on a combined acion) used by the Commonwealth and USA; even a full success by the Japanese fleet would have limited impact.

The allies manage to cut off supplies again in the Japanese coast. It is useful to harry the Japanese on their supply lines, even when it doesn't seem very important. This causes attrition and limits the Japanese choices.

[yvesp]

The German air force is still strong enough to be seriously annoying.
Russia decides not to ground strike Berlin from the air: the Ta152H2 defending it is too powerful against the best Russian fighters. Russia relies on more classical artillery.

Elsewhere in north Germany, the allies launch various ground strikes, mostly to disable the remaining air force (either bombers or fighters), or softening the defenses: The allies don't really plan on attacking this impulse in Germany, unless a very good result shows up. More likely waiting one or two more impulses. The objective could be this turn to conquer both Bremen and the forest hex defending Hamburg in the South East.

The Ta scrambles in defense of the bombers and HQ stationned in Kiel, with success.
Remaining in Berlin was anyway a gamble, against the artillery round launched by the Russian, using an offensive.

[yvesp]

Well...

Not showing the next Ground Strike results.
I made a mistake and forgot to double the Russian artillery in offensive.
So I decided to go back and replay the phase; this sometimes happens; I don't know how this could be improved, but it is really easy to forget using the offensive. Possibly a pop-up reminding one that there is an ongoing offensive before proceeding to the next impulse ?

Anyway, the intersting thing is that I had to replay the phase three times, each time ending in a crash on solving the Russian artillery attack. Apparently the game doesn't support artillery ground strike doubled in offensive. Or that's just me and my bad luck, who knows ?

Anuway, the screenshots I have are not accurate: they only reflect the last attempt I did, and I'm just tired replaying the same phase over and over.

So I decide to reload the initial save from the first run.

What did happen:
- Berlin escaped any bad result
- Hamburg too
- one fighter was disorganized

Overall, a rather bad result for the allies.

The Russian will need a lot of luck to capture Moscow (as yet it is less than 50%); and they only get one chance this turn.

[yvesp]

Absolutely tired with this game and its sluggishness ; I am accumulating mistkes on the allied side. We shall shortly see them.

Here, no mistake: the Russian paradrop two corps on Berlin.
The remaining German fighter destroys one, which is very bad.
Worse, the Russian defends with his only two fighters, which will lead to the next post.

[yvesp]

And yes... The German are unopposed and launch all of their air force in the defense of the city.

[yvesp]

The allies attempt to land in diverse places around Japan.
The Japanese try to bolster the notional unit.
Here with success...