April 29th to May 5th, 1942
North Pacific
Engineers are ashore at Toyohara, and have expanded the port to it's maximum size of 4. They're now working on building a level 9 airbase here.
To staff the airbase, I've flown the 11th Air Flotilla (a restricted IJN Air HQ) out to Toyohara, and in a few turns I'll move a couple of Zero squadrons on training duties out to Toyohara. Hopefully this will make the region look busy, and if there's any bother I can just throw some trained pilots in the squadrons and they're good to go.
A bunch of small 40 AV IJA infantry battalions arrived. They're intended for the Kurile islands, but I might send them to China to help with garrison requirements there...
Colonel Ichiki's crack unit has arrived. In keeping with tradition, I'm sending them to Wake Island. Last game with Loka, they were instrumental in defeating an Allied assault on the atoll. Maybe they'll be as fortunate this game!
Central Pacific
Not much going on here. I've pulled all the IJN subs out of the Marshalls and rebased them to either Truk or Rabaul. I don't like using the Marshalls as a forward base for anything as I feel it's just too exposed to a US carrier raid throughout the war. It also simplifies my logistics by not having to haul fuel out here.
I would like a lot more aviation support in the big airbases at Roi-Namur, Wotje and Maloelap, but it will need to wait for now.
Token garrisons are occupying Tabiteuea and Tarawa, but I've no plans to do much with the Gilberts.
IJN paratroopers from Fiji landed at Funafuti in the Ellice Islands, but that's just a clearing up exercise at present.
South-West Pacific
I've managed to run some more supplies into Fiji, bringing the troops back there up to a healthy stockpile. An Allied task force has ran NW from the Tonga Islands to intercept, but I've disbanded the ships into Nadi port and pulled out all the non-essential aircraft. If the stars are good, maybe I can generate an intercept from Noumea.
The first of several big reinforcement convoys have landed at Noumea, carrying an Air HQ and additional aviation support. The Air HQ will remain in Noumea, but I'll send some of the aviation units to Koumac on the north-west tip of New Caledonia to set up a secondary airbase for operations in the region. I won't expand it too much, as it's within 4E range of the Australian mainland. FWIW, Noumea is too, but it's 20 hexes from Noumea to Brisbane which is extreme range for nearly all the US Army bombers. Koumac, at 17 hexes from the mainland, is a bit less safe.
Koumac will serve as a search airbase for keeping an eye on Allied movements in the Coral Sea, as well as a field for recon planes to take a peek at the Australian East Coast bases.
A second influx of reinforcements is landing at Luganville. Mostly engineers, along with an Air HQ and a Naval Guard unit, these troops are the inital investment I'm making towards turning Luganville into my forward base in SWPAC and the home of the KB. I intend to build out its port and airbase and use it as a backstop to my positions on Fiji. It also has the advantage of being in an Allied search dead-zone: only Allied planes from Fiji can reach the base, but hopefully that island will be in my hands before too long. Once the first round of expansion is completed, I'll move forward some fuel and sub tenders and start operating the IJN's submarine fleet from Luganville instead of Rabual.
Islands further north are not being neglected either. I've a couple units at Ndeni in the Santa Cruz Islands developing that base to anchor Luganville's northern flank. Units are en-route to Guadalcanal as well, to develop an airbase on that region to control the Lower Solomons from Japanese incursions. There's currently a bunch of engineers at Shortlands also, to complete the final link in the chain back to Rabual. Alongside these bases, plans are underway to set up several floatplane stations to provide solid naval search into the Coral Sea and protect IJN communications back to Rabual.
Nor is New Guinea to be neglected. Buna is being developed into a formidable airbase to defend Port Moresby, and work on Hansa Bay and elsewhere will commence once the engineers are free from other projects.
DEI
This theatre is starting to die off, beyond a few IJA units running around the wasteland of Northern Australia. Darwin is probably off the cards for the present, but the island of Timor is being developed into a formidable airbase complex well in advance.
I've started mopping up the leftover dot hexes, but this will take some time.
Out with construction works on Timor, Japanese engineers are taking a south-to-north approach to the rest of the DEI. Work has started on Soerabaja to expand the port and airbase, and once that is complete, engineers will move to develop the inland bases on Java to their maximum size. There's much better bases on Java to expand, but the three inland bases on Java (Bandoeng, Soerakarta and Madioen) have amazing defensive terrain (mountain, jungle rough and jungle rough respectively) so they're well suited to supporting Batavia and Soerabaja if the Allies advance towards Java.
With Palembang in Japanese hands and at full operational capacity, the fuel and oil is starting to flow.
Luzon
After the hilarious farce that was my units being forced to retreat from Bataan, the situation seems to have stabilized. My units have ran back to Manila, and now there's 700 AV sitting behind level 4 forts. An extra 250 AV is about four days away, and the Imperial Guards are about five days away, so provided the defenders of Manila can hold out for a few more days, we should be stable here. It's still embarrassing, but it's the price I pay for my cheapskate approach to reducing Bataan. Thankfully, there's not much distruption to my other plans, as I've just pulled excess units meant for Burma to deal with this problem. There's already a big hammer en-route to Burma.
Burma
We're still not ready for operations here, despite my best efforts. I want to bring the hammer, and currently the hammer is marching overland from Thailand into Burma. Four divisions will join the three already present in Burma, but the tail division is about a month out. Too long, so I'll need to move with what I have.
Massive air strikes on Allied positions at Pegu have been a regular feature of the war, completely unoppossed by Allied air power. Long may this continue. Signs indicate that it may not, however. Allied units have expanded the airbase at both Cox's Bazaar and Akyab and Chittagong and the Allies have a modest force of bombers and fighters based at Chittagong.
China
The KMT now appear to be on their last legs in China, but they're putting up a solid fight.
The 27 unit stack that fled from the Sian front looks set to make it into the Chungking perimiter. This is unfortunate, but I'll almost certainly get one last good shock attack off at them before they go. I'm annoyed, as it's 100k men and (more importantly) almost 500 guns, but they're only worth about 1800 AV. Still, I'd rather that 1800 AV out in the open than behind forts, but such is war.
Elsewhere on the Chungking plain, the Chinese made a mad dash bid to recapture Kienko, which has been operating as a Japanese rest station and fighter/recon airbase for some time. Thanks to units airlifted from the Sian front, this bid was easily stalled. Beyond that, it's the usual case of sweeping up units and flipping hexes for the Japanese until the siege begins.
Further south, things are not so bright for the IJA. The IJA bid to capture Chihkiang has been abandoned in favor of a flanking motion to the east, while the 23rd Army is making reasonable progress towards capturing Kweiyang. The good progress in recent days is due to the development of Tuyun, to the south, as a major airbase and the efforts of 150 fighters, aircraft and bombers in putting down Chinese resistance.
The biggest disapointment for Japan in this theatre was at Tsuyung. A successful drop by IJN paratroopers from Thailand captured the undefended base and looked set to hold it. Additional reinforcements in the form of a Naval Guard unit was flown in. The inital outlook was promising after the first Chinese counterattack was knocked back, but a massive Chinese corps was moved up and forced the IJN units to retreat. They're now fleeing east towards IJA lines outside Chungking.
