Yank and I will be doing the two-thread AAR bit for our game using Lemurs scenario 26. I'm playing Japanese.
Options and House rules:
Sub Doctrines Off
Fog of War On
Advanced Weather On
Allied Damage Control On
Historical First Turn Off
Vary Setup Off
First turn surprise On
Reinforcements Very Variable
1. ASW TF's. No more than 6 to 8 ships allowed. No Admirals allowed to command.
2. No night bombing of airfields, ports or non-manpower resources by non-night airplane groups.
3. No 4E bomber missions under 6000', except for ASW missions.
4. No breakdown of LCU's in combat to reduce fatigue and disruption.
5. Jap LCUs may not exit Manchuria without changing HQ's.
I've made no restrictions on his first turn moves. Frankly, I'd rather torp his BB's in the open water.
General approach I'm taking: conservation makes for a longer life. You won't see me galavanting around the Pacific willy-nilly, nor am I going to be shotgun-invading half the known world on turn one.
Phase I is to secure the SRA, including Burma, and I plan to accomplish this by April 1, 1942.
Phase II is to secure the China-Singapore rail line and ease my transportation worries for the long haul. Also will be securing Bismarks and New Guinea. Should be complete by the end of 1942.
Phase III is building defenses in the Pacific and making a serious push at China. If auto-victory looks doable by conquering India or Russia, that is the route I will take. If not, then it will be time to sit back for the long haul.
This scenario gives me some benefits in my army air force by allowing better upgrade paths for the many Nate sentai's. I'm counting on that advantage to help me over the 4:1 hump in 1943 by conquering China.
My production plan is pretty simple. I halted all research factories, and will turn on repair of them until X days before they arrive, where X is the number of factories to be repaired. Very few factories are expanded initially, but some are changed. My changes are based on 2ndACR's notes with some modifications. The goal is to get decent Zero, Val and Kate production going ASAP. We'll see how it goes.
Shinano is halted and Shoho is accelerated. Will convert some merchant shipyards and accelerate Junyo, Hiyo and the Unryu carriers as well. More merchant shipyards will be built later once my real resource status is known. This scenario has some additional ships that will likely not be built, including an extra Yamato-class BB. There are some extra DE's that will be built. I'll make some calculations in Jan 42 to determine if some Yugumo's can be accelerated. I believe in radar.
That's the strategic plan. Let's begin the details. I don't like reading vast combat reports, so I'm consolidating into a highlight-reel structure.
