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They blinked first...

Superior look, intresting read. You make the game come alive.

The floodgates have opened.
With the capture of the Naha village. My vital armour units rush to isolate the Naha airfield. Having been frustrated on units holding out on Iwo Jima, we prepare to inundate the airfield with concerted air-strikes. (Bombardment has had no effect in this scenario).
Troops dig in west of Yonabaru and prepare for an encirclement of their remaining(?) front line.

Fresh troops disembark further north at the original landing beaches and begin the rush down the peninsula to support the exhausted, but battle hardened troops. (is there an experience bonus in this game?)

Sending down more troops has indeed been fortuitous.
The Jap front line thinned to provide a last stand at Itoman through to Makabe and Minatoga.
Again I wait for troops to bolster the line, single attacks units are often quickly cut off, and once isolated, ruthlessly dispatched.
The siege at Naha Airfield slowly attritions the enemy, they are almost weak enough for direct assault.

May 7 1945
Monsoonal rains have set in turning much of the already soft ground to mud.
The Naha Airfield falls, and opposition around Yonabaru disintegrates.
The Imperial Japanese Army are now in tatters.
Confidence is high that it will all come to an end soon.
There are however some traps for the wary. March to close to the remaining lines and certain death still awaits.
We will fight on our terms, although I expect no surrender.
We will have to drive them towards the cliffs.

As expected, strong resistance halts the now inevitable victory.
Trying to encircle salient positions to increase battle odds is difficult, as the counter attack often leaves allied infantry in tatters.
And the damn rain. Clouds, jungle, hills, mountains.
We're sick of Okinawa. Why won't they damn well surrender?
The entire North of the Island is under allied control, and yet rag tag units still emerge from the jungle. If it's not the mosquitoes, it's the bloody remnant Jap soldiers.

Caution is thrown to the wind.
The attacks lose a little coordination, but have a renewed ferocity. Both sides are cold, wet and hungry. Many are going home in bodybags, or never leaving this island.

Endgame.
The smoke of a prolonged and desperate battle clears.
(okay I turned off the cloud layer[;)])
The final turns now are all but over.
Tanks and flame units will finish off the final units.
The island is ours.

Victory

Wow. That was fun.
How to make it tougher?, (I still had around 70 turns left in the scenario), (and I also only played this on normal settings[8|])
Perhaps having less tanks. I assume the OOB was accurate, but the tanks were the real pinch hitters in this game.
Reducing their starting number would certainly mean a greater reliance on infantry, and their losses would have been significant (bordering on catastrophic).
Suffering greater losses on landing, would have also swung the balance a little. Maybe historically the troops had it easy on landing, but towards game's end although the were worn down, they still had greater strength than the Japanese forces.
The navy were an ever-present bully. I was more judicious with air strikes in this game, but always seemed to have enough to carry out significant damage. Bombardment had absolutely no impact in this scenario, and gave up on it entirely.
A passing Japanese naval threat, (surface or submarine) would have been really interesting in terms of surprise and disruption to troop support. And kept the navy on it's toes rather than being permanently parked.

A really enjoyable, just one more turn, scenario.
As I moved south toward those fortified positions I honestly thought it could have gone either way, and on harder settings probably would.

...Next I will be posting up the map and unit mods used here onto the forums. (lots of little map and gui tweaks.)
Then I'll tackle Rising Sun (perhaps with an AAR)
Thanks for reading.

[8D] AAR & [8D] looking mods.

Indeed nice reading!

Thanks guys.

Great AAR..Im just starting with the game.

A couple of real life pointers.. Naha isnt a village. Its a city. Even in 1945. Also, your soldiers wouldnt be "cold and wet"..just wet. Okinawa has a climate similar to Hawaiis.

Anyway, great read, thanks!