Gensui jdsrae (J) vs SolInvictus (A). IJ War Council room

[jdsrae]

Thanks, I am fighting on to gather data for a possible next game one day.
Having got this far into 1944 I want to see what the art of the possible is from here, and still hope to get into 1945.

My takeaway from this (and Greyjoy's) is to hold Kuriles/Sakhalin/Hokkaido in relative strength regardless of overseas situation.

Toyohara had 1x Division and 2x IM Bdes behind level 6 forts. It held out for about a month against an Allied Corps, but other bases near it fell too quickly so Toyohara was isolated.
Shikuka had 1x Bde and 3x Bns, so against an Allied Corps it quite rightly didn't last a day.
Bases in the Kuriles were generally defended by an Amphib Bde plus a few SNLF/NG units. Probably ok for secondary bases.

Toyohara, Shikuka and Para-jima probably need at least a Division plus a few Bdes and level 6 forts each.
Then if Allied SigInt spots those forces the Allied player might choose somewhere else to attack.
It would also have helped not to have 5x CVs in upgrade when the hammer fell. I doubt I will ever both with IJN upgrades of any ship after Jun 1944 again, as the extra 20mm AA guns aren't worth the risk of the ships getting stuck in repair mode.

28 Sep 44 report
Hokkaido now has about 6x Divisions and a similar number of IM Bdes on it, but all airfields are being kept out of action by Allied bombers. Dozens of Franks have been destroyed on the ground over the last few days as they can't be repaired before being bombed again.
The Allies just swept and bombed Akita near Ominato. Ranged CAP from Ominato did ok until they were worn out by about 500 sweepers. About half the CV fighter units were defending the skies over Hokkaido but they are now worn out and need a rest. The other half were flying over Shanghai and Hong Kong where the Combined Fleet are repairing, but those fighters have moved back to Japan to help defend Northern Honshu.

In a few weeks the Combined Fleet should be ready to try and force a surface combat fight somewhere near Hokkaido. I will need to keep them under land based CAP/LRCAP so fingers are crossed that the Allies don't invade Hokkaido until Combined Fleet is available again.

A large Frank LRCAP set over Palembang from Singapore did well today, but those Franks will probably need to move back to Japan soon.

[jdsrae]

A lucky sub attack, but unlucky to only get 1 of 6 torps to hit...

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[jdsrae]

After spotting Allied DDs sniffing around the Sunda Strait in recent turns, 2x CL Divs with escorting DDs were ordered to patrol the hex with max react=6 and low threat tolerance.
2x Emily units are searching the Indian Ocean but there are likely Allied forces lurking out there.
The RN CVs haven't been spotted yet.

RADM Kuwabara started with CLs Tama and Kisa (short 8k yard range 51cm torps) with all 9x Fubuki Is (with long lances) escorting. This CruDiv doesn't have float planes anymore.
RADM Hirata started with CLs Sendai, Naka and Jintsu (still with float planes) with 6x Fubuki II and 3x Fubuki III escorting. All ships in this task force have long lance torps.

Contact was made soon after dark, with an ABDA DesDiv of 5x DDs intercepted in the hex on West of Oosthaven.
Four rounds of battle followed, with RADM Hirata's task force in the lead.
An inconclusive round, with DD Yugiri burning brightly.

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Round 2 saw RADM Kuwabara's task force steam towards the gun flashes with full magazines.

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Round 3 saw RADM Hirata's task force rejoin the battle, after the strange decision to detach CL Jintsu to escort DD Yugiri. ADM Toyoda (CIC SWAF) will be asking questions about that decision when the battle reports arrive back at Hong Kong. Fortunately for Hirata, his task force finished off 4 of the 5 enemy DDs.

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Round 4 saw RADM Kuwabara mop up with no response from DD Van Galen.

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An encore was provided in the Oosthaven hex, with the COs of Jintsu and Yugiri possibly failing to remember that Oosthaven is now an Allied base.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sub attack near Oosthaven at 48,96
Japanese Ships
DD Yugiri, heavy fires
CL Jintsu
Allied Ships
SS Crevalle, hits 5
SS Crevalle launches 2 torpedoes at DD Yugiri - one hit but it was a dud!
Crevalle bottoming out ....
CL Jintsu attacking submerged sub .... Jintsu then does its best SC impression, failing to score a hit which is true to form.
Escort abandons search for sub

A fun turn to watch, setting aside the 50ish aircraft destroyed on the ground by B29s at Ominato...

[jdsrae]

CL Jintsu escorted DD Yugiri back to Batavia where it will now be left with shore parties to help fight the fires.

VADM Kobayashi was in port for some reason, so RADM Hirata was replaced.
This was an accident as I created a new task force with auto commander selection instead of just merging CL Jintsu for some reason… I’d been creating a few PT boat task forces so think I was just on auto pilot…

The battle damage is relatively high in this task force, so the CLs may be detached to RADM Kuwabara’s task force if they can rendezvous at Bandjermasin.
All ships will withdraw to Manila to reassess the situation.

These CLs were old before the war started so are well past their prime now. This sort of raiding action is about the best that they can do, as if they ran into Allied CLs or larger they would be in big trouble.
I might send them back to Japan after they repair at Manila so they can try to disrupt the upcoming DOWNFALL landings.

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[DesertWolf101]

Japanese damage control being what it is, I suspect DD Yugiri won't make it. Still a clear Japanese victory however, which I imagine is always great to have this late in the war!

[jdsrae]

Japanese damage control being what it is, I suspect DD Yugiri won't make it. Still a clear Japanese victory however, which I imagine is always great to have this late in the war!

5 enemy DDs down, only about 500 to go!?

The IJN has ships repairing at Shanghai, Hong Kong and Manila, so depending on what Allied SigInt is showing them this might make the Allies think twice about pushing into the South China Sea.

[jdsrae]

DD Yugiri lives!
Fires are out and all minor flooding was pumped out before the next turn.
The shore parties at Batavia start on repairing some of the 80ish system damage!
It will be about two weeks before she can start the cruise back to Manila to fully repair.

In other news, Hokkaido was invaded by at least 8x Divisions with the entire US Pacific Fleet in support.
The most effective defenders seen in the IJ animation were the MTBs as they caused multiple allied amphib s to run into each other.
I didn’t get to see any of the mines or coastal gun hits that the Allies saw (ref SI’s AAR).

[jdsrae]

This is the only part of the map that matters anymore.
Combined Fleet is back at Yokosuka and the Allies are about to capture Sapporo.
I’ve labelled each task force so they show the main ships within each in the black/white pop out box.

Combined Allied Air Forces operating from Sakhalin have destroyed all airfields and ports on Hokkaido.
After a recent joint IJNAF/IJAAF operation to provide LRCAP from the NE Honshu airfields around Ominato had some success in disrupting Allied bombing runs over Sapporo and Wakkanai, the sheer weight of Allied numbers overwhelmed the defenders.
I was expecting retaliation against those airfields so withdrew the fighters back to airfields around the Tokyo region to recover, but no retaliation came. The Allied Air Forces remain focussed on bombing Sapporo and will capture it within days. Even behind level 6 forts, the Clear terrain isn’t helping the defenders avoid the bombs.

Combined Allied Navies are guarding the Sea of Okhotsk, so any attempt to bombard the Allied bomber airfields wouldn’t get through the Allied naval strike aircraft that would be set, both from land bases and CVs. Any IJN attempt would then be finished off by the Allied Surface Fleets with multiple BB/CA/CL/DD present.
The only ways I can see to compete with this concentration of force are to prolong the fight by resisting from distance, but that is still a losing strategy from here.

“Front Line” airfields are within the yellow blob. Each one of them has either a Navy or Army Air HQ and supporting base forces.
They are all level 8+, but the Allies can destroy them at will despite each having reasonable numbers of AA guns and at least 1x NF/FB night CAP unit.

Allied naval search patrols have spotted some of the Combined Fleet task forces, so they know they are close and able to interfere with any landing attempt on Honshu.
I am thinking about making one attempt to escape detection by moving South from Yokosuka then hook up and around to try for a strike from S/SE of Bihoro. I have low expectations of success due to Allied SigInt and Naval Search arcs, but am going to give it a go just to try something different.
If Combined Fleet is spotted, they will move back towards Honshu and just wait until the opportunity presents for a bloody final battle at the future landing beaches.

CV Shinano arrives in 31 days and I was looking forward to seeing her bomb and torpedo attracting capabilities in action.
The chances of the Combined Fleet still having anything afloat larger than a DD by the time she arrives are reducing by the day though.

Most IJA Divisions that can move by ship are now back in Japan, including 1st and 2nd Tank Divs. 3rd Tank Div is on the way just passing Cam Ranh Bay, so is about 8 days out.
From a quick count, there are about 31x IJA Divisions now available on Honshu, not counting the 8x Depot Divs.
In addition, Sapporo has 7th, 77th and 107th Divs but they are about to be destroyed by an Allied Army that includes at least 100 enemy units already on Hokkaido. Hakodate has 48th and 49th Divs, so they won’t last long either.

Potential amphibious landing sites (all bases on the coast) are being defended by a Div+ each, with more Divs in Strat Move mode at major bases further West. All armoured forces are at Yamagata (orange circle) in Strat Move mode ready to react to the Allied landings.

IJN MTBs just scored hits on a USN CL and DD due to the low moonlight, prompting the Allied CIC to hint that the coup de gras will not come until the moonlight increases! I have not let him know that there are practically no IJN MTBs left…

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[jdsrae]

The first training air unit arrives Fugaku-tai.
I've read the theory on these units but it is good to have one to see what it can/can't do.

A few of the main things as seen in the image:
1. Only training missions are allowed for this bomber unit. I thought I read somewhere that they could fly NavS but that isn't the case in "training" mode. Maybe they can after they convert to kamikaze status.
2. Only "replacement" pilots are allowed.

Based on #2, I will use this unit to fly LowN training for rookie pilots.
Once they get to 70 skill they will graduate into an "operational training unit" to train ASW skill and get experience up towards 50.
After that the pilots will be ready to transfer to an operational squadron to fly LowN attack or ASW missions, not kamikaze missions.

By using these training units to run the LowN and ASW training courses, that should free up a couple more operational units to fly Peggy into the big attack when I finally order an "all callsigns" naval strike.

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[jdsrae]

A few more clicks and unlike other air units, the max number of pilots = 3x the max number of pilots.
MAJ Mitsumoto is a flying commander. It seems standard for those pilots to have a below average Air skill.
From memory, his high Inspiration skill (or is it Leadership?) is of more use in a training unit, so he will stay in command.
I filled the unit with replacement pilots.
Pressing “Get Instructor” just came up with a message “No Instructors available at this time”.
I just transferred 1x Bomber veteran (81 exp) to Training Command but that didn’t help.
Not a big deal, I will try it again in a few days time to see if anything has changed.
It’s not going to change the outcome of the war so I won’t waste time searching whether the Instructor function is enabled or not, but if anyone knows and can comment that would be appreciated.
I have another one of those vague memories that I read somewhere that the function was not enabled.
Cheers

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[jdsrae]

The Allies stepped up their bombing campaign in NE Honshu, flying into multiple IJAAF and IJNAF fighter units that had just been flown back to forward airfield.
Soryu-1 lost 2x KIA and 4x WIA. Unfortunately CPO Sakai was one of the two KIA… He will be posthumously promoted to WO.
All of the fighting was over IJ airfields so there were 0x MIA for the home team.
The aircraft losses report ran to just over two pages!
The RAF joined in with multiple sweeps over Singapore that wore out the defending CAP.

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[jdsrae]

This game is progressing rapidly to a conclusion now, with Allied landings on Honshu anticipated any day.

The Allied attack at Hakodate today got a 1:2 assault.

--------------------
Ground combat at Hakodate (119,53)
Allied Deliberate attack
Attacking force 171447 troops, 3121 guns, 5017 vehicles, Assault Value = 8361
Defending force 75508 troops, 773 guns, 389 vehicles, Assault Value = 2038
Allied engineers reduce fortifications to 4
Allied adjusted assault: 3451
Japanese adjusted defense: 4353
Allied assault odds: 1 to 2 (fort level 4)
Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), forts(+), preparation(-)
Attacker:
Japanese ground losses: plenty of heavily disabled IJ units in this stack as it includes the survivors from the Battle for Sapporo.
9169 casualties reported
Squads: 93 destroyed, 394 disabled
Non Combat: 42 destroyed, 321 disabled
Engineers: 13 destroyed, 62 disabled
Guns lost 140 (34 destroyed, 106 disabled)
Vehicles lost 57 (9 destroyed, 48 disabled)
Units destroyed 2 - these were fractions of JNAFUs that had mostly been flown back to Honshu.
Allied ground losses:
2704 casualties reported
Squads: 26 destroyed, 511 disabled - about 1x Division disabled, but there were 8 spotted in the stack. 7x US Army and the 4th USMC Div.
Non Combat: 24 destroyed, 156 disabled
Engineers: 6 destroyed, 203 disabled
Guns lost 137 (11 destroyed, 126 disabled)
Vehicles lost 216 (52 destroyed, 164 disabled)

It looked like plenty of US Engineer squads were being knocked out during the combat animation, but the result showed that they were mostly just disabled. The vehicles destroyed were probably just trucks!

A USN CL/DD task force raided Niigata harbour on the North Coast of Japan. It got attacked by several waves of night striking Jill/Frances for zero hits. If it was set to bombard it didn't make it that far, possibly due to all the night bombers using up its ops points, but it might just have had surface combat orders.

Combined Fleet has been ordered west towards Shimonoseki to try and avoid Allied naval search and that looks to have worked. All IJN CV/CVL/CVE/BB/CA/CL task forces will stay on the North Coast from now on, so the final battle might occur in the Sea of Japan.

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[jdsrae]

This is something post-worthy amongst the carnage.
I was a bit annoyed when the I-180 boats upgraded to SST and despite still having torpedoes couldn’t be set to war patrols.
I set them in a picquet line with Sub Transport orders just to act as “radar picquets”, but this shows that they can still use their torps.
I lost a sub to a USN sub only a few days ago in the Sea of Japan, so this is payback.

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[jdsrae]

1878 PP to buy out the 1st Division, leaves about 10 left.
6th Div is also at Bangkok having marched from Burma, but it will take nearly 40 days of PP saving to buy out.

A few tanker task forces or en route to Bangkok to try and drain the remaining fuel from Malaya and this “economic region”.
Resources are also being drained as much as possible before the Allies move forward again down here.

The most dangerous move would be for the Allies to bypass Malaya and move directly on Indochina, so there is an Infantry Division already at Saigon and Cam Ranh Bay with other troops moving towards Indochina on foot.
The value of holding Singapore now that Honshu is about to be invaded is practically nil, so if the Allies threaten to land in Malaya most troops around Singapore will catch trains towards Bangkok and Phnom Penh.
As can be seen in several bases, supply is already starting to run short in this area, so if the Allies land and press a few straight days of attacks anywhere, the defending force will collapse.
Fun times for the IJA…

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[jdsrae]

Hakodate was captured by the Allies a few days ago, with units now starting to be destroyed.
That gives the option to buy them back. There are plenty of manpower/vehicle/armament points in the pools and still over 1.8M supply at Tokyo.
The Allies are probably only a week or two away from invading Honshu, so even if bought back some units won’t have time to fill out to full TOE before the front line arrives.
I am buying back every AA unit because they are cheap (1-2 PP) and every AA gun 75mm+ will help knock down some of the 100s of Allied bombers that are visiting every day now.
HQ 5th Area Army won’t be bought back after having been responsible for the loss of Hokkaido.
The Infantry Bns and 81mm Mortar Bns won’t be bought back, but I have bought back a few 105/155mm artillery units.
I don’t think I will buy back the Infantry Bdes, but there are several Infantry Divisions about to be destroyed at Hakodate in the next few days so I might buy them back. I will move them west to Osaka, Hiroshima or Nagasaki to rebuild and help garrison “rear” areas in case the Allies try some deep landings to cut Honshu in half.

Allied air power is absolutely brutal now that it is mainly based on Hokkaido.
The Combined Fleet is at Sasebo unspotted for nearly a week now. It will move when the Honshu invasion force is spotted, and will most likely be destroyed by a combination of Allied air and sea power.
I will try to move it forward under cover of land based LRCAP, but the Allies must know that is the plan as they are methodically destroyed airfields with all of Yamagata and the four around Ominato now in ruins.

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[jdsrae]

LCDR Endo’s ASW Div of 3x Otori Class Escorts were sent to Hachinohe with about 550 fighters set to LRCAP overhead, range 1 from Iwaki and Sendai.
I would have preferred to send a less capable ASW Div on this mission but it was the only one within range and available for this opportunity.

This is the first contact for the day, and unfortunately it was the last...
The Int Report shows 26 Beaufighters claimed as A2A +1 ops loss from the 24 that flew!
I was hoping to attract a few hundred unescorted USN Dive Bombers into the LRCAP but it wasn’t to be.
All fighter units will withdraw and set LRCAP over Sendai tomorrow, as I expect the Allies to send 1000+ B24Js to destroy Sendai Airfield. Iwaki is showing 9/11 and Sendai 5/12 detection levels, and are the "northern" most operational airfields on Honshu at the moment.

LCDR Endo will return with his ASW Div to Yokosuka for tea and medals.

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[jdsrae]

I guessed wrong.
The Allies switched back to strategic bombing and flattened most of the decent aircraft factories at Hamamatsu.

GEN Sugiyama is preparing a morale boosting speech for the General Defense Army before the final battles arrive.
He is reportedly taking inspiration from General Sir Anthony Cecil Hogmany Melchett VC KCB DSO.

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[DesertWolf101]

I guessed wrong.
The Allies switched back to strategic bombing and flattened most of the decent aircraft factories at Hamamatsu.

GEN Sugiyama is preparing a morale boosting speech for the General Defense Army before the final battles arrive.
He is reportedly taking inspiration from General Sir Anthony Cecil Hogmany Melchett VC KCB DSO.
441113 Melchett.jpg

[jdsrae]

Very little action, other than massed sweeps and medium bombers adding to the craters at an empty Hachinohe airfield.

The big news is that CV Shinano arrived!
I might send her bombers ashore and upsize her fighter unit to 51.

That is the Combined Fleet moving to collect her from Yokosuka, from where they were waiting at Sasebo.
Allied naval search has extended and had spotted the Combined Fleet a few days ago.
The Allies can now search into the Yellow Sea, but haven’t sent any recon aircraft over Shanghai yet.
CVE Kaiyo is in readiness repair mode with 26 days left at Shanghai as it is now within range of B29s from Hokkaido.
CV Junyo is at Hong Kong in the repair yard with 95 days of repair left. No Allied recon over Hong Kong yet.

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[jdsrae]

The Allies are steadily bombing out industry with Gifu and Tsu aircraft production recently flattened.

These are the top fighter units sorted by experience level.
It doesn’t really matter that they are still decent pilots, they can’t shoot down enough bombers per day to turn the tide.

All CV based fighter units have completed upgrade to Sam in the last few days.
Junyo will leave Hong Kong soon with 7/19/16 damage to rejoin the Combined Fleet. She can only make 17 knots as the 19/16 damage is major, so she will form her own task force, probably just with some Matsu Class DDs as escorts.

About half the land based fighter units are 70+ experience operational units.
About 40% are now set to 50:50 CAP/train at 100’ as operational training units.
A handful of units are set to 50:50 CAP/train at 5000’ as basic training units.

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