I am not so much playing this game to win, but rather to put the scenario and the map through its paces to see how they perform. And hopefully I will have fun along the way. Likewise this AAR is not to give a blow-by-blow description of the game progress, but I hope to use it to give an occasional insight into the map and the CHS scenario. I will only be updating this AAR on a very occasional basis.
We are playing 2 day turns with standard rules/settings, apart from Japanese and Allied sub doctrine being ON. The only house rules agreed (so far) are that the Japanese use KB to attack PH on the first turn, and the Japanese can only withdraw units from Manchuria if they pay the PP cost first.
So without any further ado, lets have a look at the first game month:
December 1941:
The Japanese came out swinging. They lauched a number of far flung invasions, including of Rabaul. I didn't expect this, and it has caught me off guard. I tend to be a slow, methodical player, so faced with such an agressive strategy it is going to be difficult for me to adapt.
The Japanese attack on PH was heavy, with the KB launching attacks over two turns. Amazingly NO BBs were sunk, although all were damaged, most of them heavily. It will be a long time before any of them join the battle line again.
Below is a screenshot from the Allied perspective of Japanese operations launched on turn 1 in the PNG/Solomons area. In CHS Allied forces in this area are weak, and I will have to plan accordingly.
Apart from these attacks the Japanese launched strong offensives in the Philippines and Malaya, as well as several landings on Borneo and in the DEI, including Amboina. Over the next game month I was quickly pushed back in the Philippines to the core area of Manila, Clark Field and Bataan. I don't expect to hold these for very long.
In Malaya, the Allies staged a fighting withdrawal down the peninsula, but was soon pushed back to just Johore Bahru and Singapore itself. The only bright spot here was a successful attack on a Japanese warship: after days of ineffectual high altitude bombing of Japanese naval forces off the Malayan East coast by level bombers, a coordinated strike was launched by all available torpedo bombers (Vilderbeests and Swordfish). In this attack the stringbags put a single torpedo into the BB Kongo which promptly exploded and sank.
After withdrawing from the vicinity of Pearl Harbor, the KB has not been sighted.
