Quisling! An AFB does Japan (No PanzerKat)

[John B.]

Sorry for the delay in reporting. Here is the news. Nothing much to see here right?

[John B.]

Wrong! Invasion HI!!! It's on.

[John B.]

After a relentless bombardment by air and see it looks as if the Allies have put 6 divisions ashore in one turn. Pretty impressive. Not much happened other than the paradrop by a regiment that was basically wiped out.

[RangerJoe]

Rapid Rail Transit time with the Bullet Trains in Japan!

[John B.]

You got that right! More to follow

[John B.]

The next day the Kamis went in. This is the day that they've been waiting for and this was the day of their death. My continuing frustration with Kamis came out again and fighter sweeps did not go in and Kamis picked CVs (can't really blame them on that one). Many dead Japanese and no ships hit.

The one bright spot here is that Scott's sweeps also did not go in so he lost a number of bombers over Shiminoseki.

[John B.]

Also, MTBs were created at Shiminoski and they went in and took out a few allied ships. No reported troop loss but a few ships. All of the MTBs were sunk but they died smiling.

SSXs were created and sunk. Pretty useless.

The conveyor belt of US shore bombardment continued. Shelling by 8-9 BBs, just like last turn. My CD fort does some damage to a few but not much.

[John B.]

The allies attack and reduce the fort level by one down to 5.

Japanese reinforcements are delayed by a paradrop on the railroad from Tokyo to Shiminoseki. MY transport aircraft start airlifting a regiment into the battle.

[John B.]

And the next day. More BBs bombard the target. Japan stopped expending planes over the target hex so the allies can bomb at will, but AA units are headed there. This is the crucial turn if Scott can push me out of the hex he'll have essentially split Japan in two.

[John B.]

The last of my MTB reserves go in. One of them does very well. But, at the end of the day, all but two are sunk. I don't bother creating more SSXs.

[John B.]

I send the CVS out near Tokyo in the hopes of luring Scott's CV planes into a CAP trap but he has moved too far away. And, one of Scott's subs puts two torpedoes into one of the CVS. It's not in bad shape and has a shot at making it back into port. I move most of my DDs to Osaka (middle circle) so that next turn they can raid the invasion fleets.

Right circle was a duel between the CD and a CLAA plus two DDs. All three ships may have gone down as they took punishing damage.

[John B.]

Sorry, left circle was the CD duel.

A sub near Manila did put a torpedo into a British CV but no real damage was reported.

[John B.]

And the ground attack? Scott reduced the fort level down to 4 (this is bad for bombardment purposes as I"m in clear terrain). But, the hex held and the allies got a punch in the nose.

[John B.]

Here are my divisions that are now at Shiminoseki. They are unpacking so my defensive strength is growing and now I'm shipping in lots of heavy guns and AA. I may hold off on sending other divisions for now because Scott can hit me with another blow.

Scott thinks it's not terribly realistic for divisions to sit on trains for a year or so waiting for an invasion so that they can move off right away. I agree with him to a point. I don't know the penalty for being in strat mode but it does not seem to affect morale or disruption. And, given that they don't move the actual invasion turn I don't think it's too gamey to leave them in strat mode. Plus, when you factor in unpacking time, a division moving from Tokyo to Shiminoseki takes 6 days to be completely combat ready. Still, if anyone has thoughts on this I'm curious. Also, there does not seem to be a limit on railcap.

Scott is worried that I'll push him into the sea but I don't see that happening anytime soon. I'm so disrupted by his constant BB bombardment and air bombing that I would be foolish to attack. But, I do want to move in enough artillery to attrit his forces down.

[RangerJoe]

It depends upon the type of unit. Having units packed up and ready to load on rail cars is not gamey. Having tanks loaded on flatbed cars waiting to move along with other equipment loaded on rail cars waiting to move is game. Having troops in passenger cars for a year can be messy since they did not have septic tanks. However, with the manpower available to load the rail cars and knowing that you can load vehicles relatively quickly on rail cars is a fact especially considering that as soon as the invasion occurs or even any invasion force seen at sea, it would behoove the enemy High Command to issue orders to load. Once the invasion site is known, the trains would be moving and maybe even before then to the general area.

[John B.]

Yeah, its hard to be precise with strat mode. combat mode means you're spread out somewhere in the 45 mile hex and need to be gathered (packing time) to get into strat mode. Given that you don't actually move on the turn of the invasion (unless you guess the exact day and place) I figure having the unit in strat mode means its kept in garrison close to the rail yard and spends the invasion day loading so it can move out the next day. And, then it still has to unpack when it gets there. I guess the game really doesn't take into account allied air interdiction of the rail lines that would slow things down or rail cap, but I moved about five divisions to the invasion site in three days so I think that's not some wild amount.

In any event, waiting for the next turn.

[John B.]

March 7th was not a good turn for allied naval airpower. I sent some DDs on a high speed night raid to Shiminoseki and they sank a couple of DDs and lost one of their own. But, during the day as they rode at anchor they attracted the attention of a CV TF that sent several waves of planes over Kobe. The cost was one IJN DD and about 200 TBF, SBDs, and Hellcats. A very good trade (sort of offsets the Kamikaze disappointment from a few turns ago).

21 BBs bombarded Shiminoski this turn and every turn. They rearm at Fusan and make the two hex trip for the bombardment. Not too much I can do about that.

[RangerJoe]

So you each lose 2 DDs but he loses a lot more aircraft. That is a definitive win for you that day.

[John B.]

Well, on the military front it was a decent day with my AA at Shimonoseki taking out a number of dive bombers and allied losses based on a couple of small attacks that he made. But, the civilians might not think so. Scott launched a fire raid at Fukokua and has started to scorch Japan. Putting air assets in Kyushu is just an invitation for Scott to destroy my fighter arm but let's see if I can pounce one of these days if he gets careless with sweeps.

[RangerJoe]

Nice AAA losses. Maybe the Japanese civilians would get some fresh meat . . .