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

[jdsrae]

The war rolls on, with the Allied strategic bombing campaign providing the main action every 2-3 days.
The Joint IJA/IJN fighter units are knocking down about 2:1 of the enemy fighter sweeps, but are barely touching the bombers. AA guns are damaging several and destroying a few heavy bombers whenever the raids occur, but are not shooting enough down to make a difference to the final outcome.

Most aircraft and engine factories are destroyed now. Even the less capable aircraft factories have been targeted.
The replacement pools will start to run low in early 1945 now, if the invasion of Honshu doesn't come before then.

The big news today was that the first IJA response to the Essex Class CVs was just commissioned!
The 10cm guns might shoot a few Allied aircraft down before providing another 43 points to the other team.

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[DesertWolf101]

Love your humour mate

[jdsrae]

Big news today, during a night strike against the US Pacific Fleet at Shikuka.
PO2 J. Minami's tail gunner in a P1Y2 Frances got the first confirmed kill of an Allied Fighter of the war.
20mm Type 99 cannon have been seen to damage enemy fighters before, but this is the first bomber unit to have a confirmed kill on its info screen.
It was a F6F-5N Hellcat.
True to form, no Allied ships were harmed by any of the torpedoes, but a couple of different CA were attacked.

[jdsrae]

All quiet on all fronts.
A few delusional GEN and ADM still think this is a sign that the war can be won, but in reality it is just a sign that the Allies can afford to rest their 1000s of bombers while they wait for ground forces to prepare to land on Honshu.

I have not been able to detect a pattern in Allied bombing, to indicate whether they are more likely to land on the North or South Coast.
NE Honshu is sparsely defended while all bases within 2-3 hexes of Tokyo hold most of the regular IJA Divs and all 4x Armd Divs.

The next series of IJA Divs to be raised will be in Manchukuo, with the 120s Divs due to arrive in about 19 days.

The last 2x CVs were commissioned today (Aso and Ikoma) so the air units will upgrade to Sam, Judy-4 and Grace and be ready to counter any Allied invasion within days.

[jdsrae]

Subdued NYE parties in Tokyo this year.
1945 dawns with the Allied CVs spotted moving East from Sakhalin, potentially to line themselves up for an invasion of the NE Coast somewhere between Ominato and Sendai. My guess is the NE tip within a hex or two of Ominato to allow maximum LRCAP from Hokkaido, then overland moves.
Elsewhere, a big Allied Army including Aus, NZ, Brit and Indian troops are advancing overland from Rangoon towards Chiang Mai. No Allied Navy spotted here yet, all supply seems to be coming overland from India or is being flown in.
The IJA has at least a dozen Divisions (20s, 30s and 50s) down there in Jungle Rough terrain, and another 5-6 poised to advance from Lashio to threaten Allied bases in Central Burma just to try and make things interesting for a few weeks.
The IJN super-sub I-400 has launched so that is another toy I am keen to see sink something before she goes under.
Points are about 80k to 75k to the red team, but the lead should flip within the next few weeks.

[jdsrae]

6 Jan 45 – another tactical victory for the IJA.
25th Indian Div was not even at Bde strength, with only 73 AV showing at the start of the combat animation.
I set 31st Div units to Reserve mode to keep them out of the battle, but made a mistake by not setting them to “do not pursue”.
31st Tankette Co pursued all the way into the hex to the NE which is a 10 unit Allied stack. They have been ordered to try and rejoin their Div.
It will probably be destroyed tomorrow, unless the Allied CIC is wary of what the 7x pursuing units are and doesn’t order an attack.

HQ Southern Army (GEN Terauchi) is at Chiang Mai with 7x Infantry Divs.
29th Army is one hex NE of Chiang Mai with 3x Infantry Divs.
The battle stack has 4x Infantry Divs including 31st Div which hasn't combined yet.

HQ Burma Area Army (GEN Kimura) is just NE of Moulmein with 7x Infantry Divs.
Moulmein has 1x Infantry Div.

If the Allies do advance through the gap on the white arrow there is a chance to cut them off from supply and make it hard for them to fight their way out, either forwards or back.

1st Army with 3x Infantry Divs and 9th IMB is about to attack the single NZ Bde just west of Lashio.
IJA 15th and 17th Infantry Divs are two hexes east of Lashio, moving from Yunnan to reinforce an attack along the Lashio-Mandalay road.
Allied reinforcements have just been spotted moving east from Mandalay but it is most likely another Bde, with most Allied Divisions assumed to be in the main advance in the Pegu-Chiang Mai region.
The IJA will not move out of the rough terrain, but will try to destroy some more Allied squads in the jungle and possibly draw some troops away from the Pegu-Rangoon area by rail. The large Allied stacks are now deep in the jungle so can’t move back quickly to help.

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[jdsrae]

I-400 strikes with the combat debut of the Seiran, and its magic bottomless supply of torpedoes!
Only an xAKL, but still good to see.
This could spark a disproportionate reaction from the Allies, if they try to hunt her down or even if they just decide to assign escorts to more rear area convoys along the US West Coast.
Midway is just off the SE of the image, so this xAKL is probably on patrol as a radar picquet.

I-401 just commissioned today so might move to a similar area to pick off some more radar picquets.

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[jdsrae]

Allied Heavy Bombers tried to disrupt the attack but they were ineffective in the rough terrain. I doubt the Allies will divert more Heavy Bombers to this theatre, so the IJA will continue to advance and cause some havoc.
8th NZ Bde was just shattered.
Hopefully this makes the Allies adjust their plans too.
9:1 assault odds was higher than I was expecting, a good sign.
58th Division is recovering and taking replacements at Lashio.

[jdsrae]

One funny thing about the current situation is that despite Hokkaido being occupied by the Allies, the priorities for IGHQ Personnel Branch do not change.
In the next few weeks significant numbers of new units will be raised in Manchukuo, then China, and then as 3rd priority in 51 days time in Japan!

The Allied CIC mentioned that he’d spotted the counter attack in Burma, and how it was funny that any troops would be left in Indochina with the home islands ablaze.
I responded that I would bring more troops home if I could, but I don’t have the Political Points to bring any more home by ship at the moment.

The political masters in the Govt are effectively blocking IGHQ from bringing dozens of IJA Divisions home from Burma, Thailand, China and Manchukuo.

Instead of raising new units in China and Manchukuo right now, it would make more sense if the units were raised in Japan, but I understand the limitations of the game mechanics. If there was a way for units to be raised in Japan, but restricted for shipment for political reasons only to their assigned Command HQ area (eg: China or Manchukuo) that would “fix” this issue, but there isn’t. As a result, the Allies will continue to face dozens of Divisions in Theatres that are now largely irrelevant.

From rough count there are 22x Divisions in the Moulmein-Chiang Mai area, as it looks like 14th Army is advancing there as its main effort.
There are also 6x IJA Divisions near Lashio that are now advancing towards Mandalay, plus a few more Divisions defending major bases in rear areas in Indochina including Bangkok, Saigon, Cam Ranh Bay.
That sums to more than 30x IJA Divisions that would make a massive difference if they were back in Japan.

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[jdsrae]

The Kiwis took the brunt this battle but terrain offset the supply (-).
A few fresh IJA Divs are about halfway to moving into this hex to try and rout these defenders.
From memory the African Divs don’t have as much firepower as the other Allied Divs, but they did ok here.

The advance towards Mandalay has made contact again, with what looks like an Allied Division + now trying to block that approach.

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[jdsrae]

The Allies show their cards with this attack, providing excellent intel on their strength as the 31st Tankette Coy was destroyed.
The advance of this stack towards Chiang Mai was halted with what looked like all Allied units joining the attack.
Chiang Mai looks fairly secure against this enemy force with so many IJA Divs close together, especially if the enemy stacks are all low on supply.

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[jdsrae]

This could be the last IJA victory of this game.
Some Allied units are spotted withdrawing in this area now, likely leading to a stalemate as there isn't enough supply for the IJA to fight many more times.

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[jdsrae]

Ominato was flattened with all airfields inside the red circle out of action.

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[jdsrae]

Allied CVs have been spotted back at Shikuka (the list of TFs on the left).
The TF list on the right is just some of the ships spotted moving to an assumed assembly area.

The IJN Combined Fleet had a couple of TFs spotted at Sasebo, so everything CL and above has been ordered to Amami Oshima to wait until the Allied invasion fleet shows itself.

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[jdsrae]

This image shows the start of running the 21 Jan 45 turn.
Allied subs swarmed into the Sea of Japan and lots of IJN ASW Divs were ordered to respond, mostly 3x E or 3x SC Divs.
USN CVs were spotted just to the East of Hakodate yesterday with amphibs approaching the East Coast.
That could be a feint with the real landings to be on the NW Coast of Honshu, but the landing sites will soon be known.

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[jdsrae]

The 22 Jan 45 turn started like this.
The Allies landed at Hachinohe yesterday but their CVs are now just of the NW tip of Honshu.
By the end of the turn the Allies landed at the two bases NW of Hachinohe and have 30-40 units ashore at each landing site.
They also landed something in non-base hexes to cut the rail lines towards Ominato, but each of those hexes is "defended" by an Armd Car Co.

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[jdsrae]

I was starting to wonder if the KB would launch a strike, but they did late in the afternoon
The image stuffed up for some reason but the battle started with about 300 Sams escorting, and a few hundred each of Judy and Grace.
The Sam count got down to about 200 before the bombers started their attack runs.

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[jdsrae]

Of the USN CVs listed as sunk, only CVL Bataan was confirmed during the combat animation.
The ammo and fuel storage explosions might have caused the optimistic reporting from the returning strike pilots.
“Only” 54 Sams shot down is a lot better than expected.
KB has enough planes left to try and strike again tomorrow at the landing sites.

Lots of IJN Escorts in the Sea of Japan were sunk by scouting enemy DDs, but some of those DDs were then sunk by Judy/Grace/Jill as they were too far forward of their own air cover.

There might have been a few more Allied amphibious ships sunk if some strike range settings were reduced by 1, as lots of unescorted bombers attacked the enemy CVs and were shredded. Those same strikes might have got through the CAP if they tried to sink ships at the landing sites that were 1 hex closer.

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