A Japanese Debacle - Sqz (J) vs. fcharton (A)

[SqzMyLemon]

ORIGINAL: Feurer Krieg

I think you are still getting there early enough, that you have a reasonable chance of success.

Nah, I'm already resigned to defeat. I had such high expectations for this game and the poor performance, bad luck and failure to grasp the impact of the DBB changes to rearming has my morale in the toilet.

[PaxMondo]

ORIGINAL: SqzMyLemon

I've gotten a handle on my initial problems with reduced aviation support, now I'm facing similar angst with the reduced naval support available. I'm having extreme difficulty rearming my BB's and CA's at ports that traditionally could be rearmed when supplemented with sufficient naval support squads under stock. What used to take two Fleet HQ's now takes four and the delay getting additional naval support squads in place is limiting the effectiveness of my navy. I'm glad I have the time to make adjustments to play better, but December goes down as the most chaotic and disorganized month I've ever experienced.

Totally unaware that John had taken NavSupport in addition to AvSupport and engineering... ouch.

[SqzMyLemon]

I just checked the number of AKE's I start the game with. There is one.

The first four Lima conversions to AKE's were completed on turn 23. I now have a total of five with four located in Japan.

This was a mistake. I won't make any more comments about DBB other than that I should have stayed away from it.

[Lowpe]

Port and AF are smaller too, aren't they? I, too, have struggled with the changes, but the war goes on and it will at some point hinder the Allies as much or even more so than Japan.

Personally, I think you have a neat plan and it is way too early to resign yourself to defeat. Crikeys, your a JFB! Have a sake, and seek the divine wind for some morale. [;)] As long as you grab the oil you can do very well, Obvert lost the KB at Pearl Harbor and did well after that.

But you have a great plan, are days away from launching (landing it) and haven't suffered defeats just missed opportunities.

Buckle up. Now is your chance to kick some Allied booty!

[FeurerKrieg]

Yea, DBB is a challenge, but for bean counters like me I like it. I really think it also makes the support ships much more important, which is nice. Instead of them just sitting in Japan for the war, they actually are important now. Big things are still possible, just takes a lot more planning and a little more luck.

Still- it is long war, and the Allies face some of the same challenges, so don't let that morale get too low yet!!

[SqzMyLemon]

I won't get a turn back from Francois today, so I'm just going through my units to see what needs to go where. The new AKE's will head immediately for Babeldoab, Rabaul and Truk. Two more batches of AKE's will be ready for deployment in 9 and 13 days. Every unrestricted Fleet HQ, with the exception of Southern Fleet, will be deployed forward to Babeldoab, Rabaul and Port Kembla when captured. I find it ridiculous to have to do this, but otherwise I can't fire a shot in anger until I have some level 7 ports in my possession. I'm stripping the Home Islands of everything that isn't bolted down and moving it forward so I don't run into any more problems.

I'm taking another radical step with the air force. Since at least 1/3 of the air units can't fly because there is no aviation support to sustain them, I will be withdrawing most of them for 60 and 180 day periods. I need to get rid of the clutter that is just sitting there useless and pissing me off. I'll slowly bring units back into play only when there is support available for their use. I should save supply not having as many air units on the map training, but the downside will be a reduced number of skilled pilots in reserve.

[FeurerKrieg]

Funny you mentioned 1/3. From day one, I set aside 1/3 of my air units across the board for training. I wonder if that is partly why I didn't run into quite as much trouble with the AV Support issue. Don't get me wrong, I don't think I have ever had a front line base with more than 50% of the needed AV Support - but I have not had any trouble with air units flying.

[SqzMyLemon]

China Part 1

Here's the situation in the Sian area. The majority of the Chinese have already withdrawn into better defensive terrain to block the road to Sian and make it a tough go for Japanese forces should they move on Sian. Too bad they won't be.

I'm making noise in the area, but there really is no intention to push the Chinese here at all. I want a forward Chinese defence in this area and I hope for an eventual Chinese counterattack if I can appear weak enough to encourage one. Once the rail lines are clear the majority of Japanese divisions will redeploy for the real Japanese offensive in eastern China.

[SqzMyLemon]

China Part 2

Here's the situation in the Changsha area. The main offensive to defeat China is underway in the east. The 13th IJA has captured Wenchow and will now focus on crushing the Chinese forces in the area while moving towards Kukong.

11th IJA has invested Changsha and has moved three divisions through the base via hex side control to move on Pingsiang. Once the base is captured the advance will shift to Hengyang. From Hengyang, the Japanese will move on Kweilin, Tuyun and Kweiyang. Ultimately, I want to reach the Burma border before turning inwards to destroy the remaining Chinese forces in China.

The fly in the ointment is Francois love of the China theatre. Chungking recently expanded to a level 5 airbase and American B-17D's have been operating for weeks from the base. The Allied reinforcement of Rangoon indicates an attempt to move supply and troops into China proper. I will launch a full blown offensive in Burma to counter as soon as Singapore falls.

In light of our house rule to allow strategic bombing from day one in any theatre, I am going to lay waste to industry in Central and Southern China as soon as I have the airbases and aircraft available to do it. The gloves are off in China.

[SqzMyLemon]

ORIGINAL: Feurer Krieg

Funny you mentioned 1/3. From day one, I set aside 1/3 of my air units across the board for training. I wonder if that is partly why I didn't run into quite as much trouble with the AV Support issue. Don't get me wrong, I don't think I have ever had a front line base with more than 50% of the needed AV Support - but I have not had any trouble with air units flying.

I'm actually talking about a lot of front line units as well. All those POS Nate's and obsolete bombers. I want them gone from the theatre until I can upgrade. The problem for me is also the repair times are taking forever, especially at bases where numbers of aircraft exceed the aviation support present. Too many crates are sitting there just ripe for destruction from Allied bombing. I'm not taking anything to chance in this game anymore, I'm running lean and efficient from now on with maximum effort on a narrow front to crush everything in my way. I'm done dicking around.

[FeurerKrieg]

That's the spirit!

[PaxMondo]

ORIGINAL: Feurer Krieg

Funny you mentioned 1/3. From day one, I set aside 1/3 of my air units across the board for training. I wonder if that is partly why I didn't run into quite as much trouble with the AV Support issue. Don't get me wrong, I don't think I have ever had a front line base with more than 50% of the needed AV Support - but I have not had any trouble with air units flying.

Sheesh, I wish. In my games (against Andy AI), I'm lucky to have 25% of my groups active by mid-Jan '42 due to pilot losses. My opponent is brutal; unceasing attacks everywhere.
Until my training program catches up in Mar '42, I'm always terribly short of groups. I have to move them around every turn ... After Mar '42, yeah I have ~40% of my groups committed to training ... or more. Really depends upon the pilot loss tempo. I have some control on the non-fighter pilots, but fighter pilot losses are mostly set by Andy AI's tempo and it is high. [;)]

Just offering a totally irrelevant perspective here. [:D][:D][:D]

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: SqzMyLemon
I'm done dicking around.

Banzai!

[SqzMyLemon]

I'm not there yet. I figure it's going to take at least a month to recover from a disastrous December. Nothing is going well and if there's even a remote chance of something going in my favour, it just doesn't. There are just so many little negative events happening that cumulatively are adding up to cause serious problems and delay.

On a positive note, I was finally able to reload one battleship at Truk with the aide of my lone AKE at the base. There are only five more to go, so I should be able to sail in a week. [8|]

The Australian invasion forces will be two hexes away from Sydney next turn, Dec. 31st. The landings against Port Kembla and Newcastle will occur on the New Year. I've decided to not land directly at Sydney due to the lack of battleship support. I must make sure Port Kembla and Newcastle fall on the first assaults so they get all the support from my limited assets.

There will be an amphibious landing on Australia's coast on the 31st though at Rockhampton. IJA 144th Rgt. and a number of support units will assault the base. The intention here is to establish a functioning airbase within range of Rabaul that can provide an air bridge for Japanese aircraft to deploy at Port Kembla and Newcastle upon capture. An additional benefit is it will block the coastal rail line preventing any Allied units in the north from deploying south.

During the replay, it was noted that a Dauntless SBD-3 was shot down over KB's position. I wouldn't put it past Francois to have deployed his carrier air to bases in Australia. KB is on full alert, but unfortunately some follow up TF's may not be under the CAP umbrella. I fully expect those TF's to get targeted if the Allies do launch any naval air attacks.

[SqzMyLemon]

ORIGINAL: PaxMondo

Just offering a totally irrelevant perspective here. [:D][:D][:D]

Not at all Tony. It makes me think on what needs to be done. I believe Francois will play an extremely aggressive air war, as he knows all the weaknesses of the Japanese in a Scenario 1 game. He's fully exploiting how weak my initial position is in China for example and knows it takes a few months to ramp up the Japanese air force. He's hitting me with everything he has because he knows I can't counter effectively everywhere.

[SqzMyLemon]

Besides the pending Australian invasion, priority must be given to securing the DEI. Despite what I felt was sufficient force to take both Ambon and Balikpapan neither base has fallen. Reinforcements are en route. All future invasions will include sufficient force to insure there are no more delays capturing individual bases. The pace of conquest won't necessarily increase, but there will be no more delays caused from Allied troops simply getting good rolls. I'll create my own luck. I always feel I have two adversaries when playing Japan, my opponent and the AI. Especially the AI which does me no favours at the best of times.

The priority in China will shift to obtaining complete air superiority to eliminate interference from Allied aircraft. The Allied aircraft that are creating problems completely out of proportion to the numbers involved must be destroyed. I am going to commit more aircraft to China than I ever have before, even if it means committing every aviation support unit in Japan and Manchuria to China.

Even though we've already completed three weeks, I can't help but think the war actually starts for me on 1 Jan 42.

[PaxMondo]

ORIGINAL: SqzMyLemon

On a positive note, I was finally able to reload one battleship at Truk with the aide of my lone AKE at the base. There are only five more to go, so I should be able to sail in a week. [8|]

Getting Truk to P7 is the crucial task. There is a huge step in terms of re-arm capability moving from Port6 to 7.

I frequently move extra engr units to Truk beginning on Dec7 to get that done ASAP. It is the only port 7 you can get outside of the HI/HK until Singers/Soerbaya/Manila fall. And in terms of south or east, there are no others unless you get Noumea, which still requires a large effort to build up.

[FeurerKrieg]

Yes, agreed - engineers to Truk are super important. Noumea is too far out on the perimeter to justify such a buildup IMO (not saying that you said it should be built up).

[PaxMondo]

ORIGINAL: Feurer Krieg

Yes, agreed - engineers to Truk are super important. Noumea is too far out on the perimeter to justify such a buildup IMO (not saying that you said it should be built up).

Understood ... and correct, I do not always build it up ... big target for the allies ...

[SqzMyLemon]

In the past, I deployed more naval HQ's to make up the difference until the engineers expanded Truk's port. In this case, I just didn't account for how much support I'd be short compared to stock.

Once I get some Lima class AKE's forward I should be alright, but I do need to get some all the way to Australia quickly.

Francois's been busy the last few days with work and I'm not sure if I'll get a turn today. The next turn is a big deal as the amphibious landing forces hit the beaches. I traded firepower for speed and I hope I don't regret it. I'd feel more comfortable if I had another four battleships on hand.