Matrix Games Forums

Well, below you'll see my initial thoughts, from last night, once I learned I would be playing a game as the Americans.

There's lots of colour and boxes and lines so let me explain....

Phase 1:

Intent:
1. Draw out the G9Ms.
2. Cut China off from Korea/Japan.
3. Bottle up the Western approaches /exits for Japanese naval power.
4. Dislocate the enemy plan from Day 1.

Allied CV units will move on Torishima and Daito Shoto initially, escorting significant amphibious forces towards these objectives and practicing amphibious invasion doctrine. I normally make do with far less and don't have the opportunity to use dedicated amphibious ships etc so I'm interested to see how these units gel together. Also it is important to always remember there's always more to learn. I am not experienced with late-war US amphibious landings and so I need to practice in-game to learn how to do them right. Daito Shoto and Torishima are low-risk areas in which to get such live-fire practice.

Once completed my forces will reprovision and move on Saishu To and Tokarra Retto. Tokarra Retto will be the stepping off point for PT and DD TFs to patrol the waters north to Nagasaki and west towards Shikoku and close off this "corner" of Japan to the Japanese merchant fleet.

Saishu To will be taken to allow USN DD TFs to dominate the Yellow Sea ( it is only 9 hexes to Tsingtao which means my DDs can sprint there at night, sink any loading/unloading ships and be back under air cover by the next day).

The black lines emanating from Torishima, Tokarra Retto and Saishu To show the directions in which I expect to be able to send DD TFs at night in order to interdict enemy shipping movements.

The ORANGE squares will be parachute drops within the first week of the war. These islands are vulnerable and I intend to land and hold them in preparation for making them fighter bases from which to sweep, sweep, sweep Japan to death. It will also allow me to really dislocate his plans for deploying or redeploying his navy within the sea of Japan and provide bases for small numbers of naval strike aircraft.


Phase 2:
The Eastern phase will involve the capture of Etorofu and the island east of it. Both of these islands are outside of Ohka range of any other islands - yes, I AM worried about Ohkas. Those things are deadly.

From Etorofu I'll have LBA cover for moves on the island to the west ( CLEAR and with the potential for a Level 7 airfield ) AND for a move on Wakkanai. DD TFs based at Wakkanai and the island west of Etorofu will be within 9 hexes ( night-time sprint range ) of the straits through which barges and the IJN merchant fleet will have to move to transport troops to Hokkaido.
This will also serve the purpose of bottling up the eastern exit of the Sea of Japan.

Phase 3:
Usling LSTs, LSIs etc I'll move along the islands near Tokkarra Retto and Torishima, gradually moving close to Japan. Why LSTs and LSIs? Simple, less vulnerable to Ohkas and the need less cover by BBs etc. The smaller the ships I use the less I'll lose to Ohkas and Shinyos.

With the IJN bottled up by Saishu To and my bases around Hokkaido and along the Okinawa/Torishima axis I expect to be able to bottle up and defeat the IJN fairly handily. If they put to sea I'll see them and can send in CVs, if they stay in port my B24s and B-17s operating from Level 6 airfields ( which most of these islands can be built to ) can bomb them. Whatever they do they expose themselves to attack.

Importantly, all of these bases also mean that no place on the map will be outside of my bomber range - which means I'll be able to hit the Ki-264 factories.

My goal is to have completed the circle by the end of September ( the first week will be a ceasefire, the next 3 weeks will be open season ). 3 Weeks isn't a lot of time to utterly isolate Japan and defeat the IJN but, hell, with this much stuff available there'd be no fun in picking a nice, easy, unambitious plan. By the circle I mean taking the bases I've higlighted. Taking the small islands north of Torishima and north and east of Tokarra Retto will be October's work.


Phase 4:
Either I'll decide to let him bring troops into Hokkaido at great cost before evacuating mine - using Hokkaido as a great deception to lure his IJA forces out of Honshu or, if his forces seem very strong and my bomber offensives vs his factories isn't having the desired effect, I may decide take Hokkaido and turn it into a four-engined bomber base.


Well, that's pretty much my first operational concept. I plan to allocate a single fighter squadron to sweep oever each of the mainland Japanese bases as and when I have the airfields available to allow that. My goal is to allow Japan no base in which it can reorganise its squadrons in peace. Wherever the fighters go they'll find sweepers in the air above them preventing their training or culling them when they rise to the challenge.

The plan only goes two months in but that's because the goal is to finish the war as a going concern by the end of December so planning till the end of October is 50% of the war done. Pretty much November and December should be "rinse and repeat".

Pretty cool plan... But no plan survives ( etc, etc ) ...
Good luck!!!!

I prefer to think that no enemy survives contact with my plan.

The other way seems a bit too passive. My version is a tad more forceful, and direct. [:D]


Seriously though, it is all about imposing your will, breaking the OODA cycle and putting the other fellow on the back foot. It is a matter of mindset. Some people expect their plans to come apart, some people expect their opponents to come apart when they execute their plan. My expectation is that my opponent will find himself in a deteriorating cycle of choices, decisions and outcomes. There's a possibility I will be wrong of course but a lot of wars have been won not by the side with the better plan but by the side whose leader had just a few % more self-belief than the other side's leader.

It doesn't even matter if it is justified. Fake it till you make it.

I fail to see how this plan will cut off China from Korea. Or doesn't the scenario map include an overland connection between China and Korea ?

Nope, back story is that the Soviet Union cut that land bridge in search of a nice port opening into the Yellow Sea.

In reality it wouldn't matter even if it didn't cut China off. It cuts Korea off from the mainland. I only have to cut the mainland off from Korea to achieve my objectives since even if every soldier in China was in Korea they can't do any good unless they can be brought onto the mainland.

Sapporo has most of those 'nasty' 4e bombers factories that you may want to take out asap. [;)]

giants-  is your sig the Guadalcanal naval battle scene from "The Pacific"?  Sure looks like it... probably not though.

Savo Island...artwork done by Sula Sea after some of my assistance in helping him with the Japanese economy learning curve.

Hi guys, yes it's a still picture from The Pacific, Savo Island battle - I just added the anchor chain and logo and blended with the forum background.

Looks fantastic. Great movie series too.

I'm helping out Nemo with some artwork for his mod.

More planes are in the planning stages but current finished planes are-

J7W1 Shinden



J7W2 Shinden



MXY7 Ohka



It's been fun learning about some late war Japanese planes even if some were not built in great numbers.

Those look outstanding!

They are indeed, and quickly turned out too. I particularly like the change fromt he J7W1 to J7W2 with there being less paint and it being applied more haphazardly to reflect Japan's worsening supply situation. Of course, who needs paint when you've got an additional 50mph?

Well, I see PH has outed himself as my opponent and NOT just a figment of my imagination as some of the more icd-10-complient members of the forum would have us all believe. Yeah, we're doing a rematch because we both wanted to swap sides and see how things would go. PH initially wanted to do a full campaign with me as Japan but, honestly, I stopped working on EA some time back and resurecting that will take time. So I suggested a game with me as the Allies as a stop-gap while I got EA into order.

He was looking for quite a few HR changes but I really wanted to stick to the same HRs as we used for our game. After all if they were fair then then they should be fair now. So proposals to limit Allied four-engineds to high altitude while allowing the Japanese down low were turned down. I've got to admit I quite like this though. PH isn't a rules lawyer BUT he tries to maximise his advantages any way he can.

Our original game had a rule that Japanese ships could not move more than 3 hexes from "land" ( defined as mainland China, Korea and Japan ) while the ceasefire was in effect. I found a workaround to that by routing ships to and from China via Tsingtao and northern Korea where the gap was about 6 hexes so they could move from being 3 hexes from China to being 4 hexes from China and 3 hexes from Korea. I decided not to take advantage of that loophole during the ceasefire in my game vs PH but I noted it. PH initially asked for full freedom of movement but I didn't agree as I wanted the two games to be under the same HRs and then spotted the loophole. Fair enough he asked me if that would be OK as he wasn't sure if I'd object. Obviously I said I was more than happy for him to spot something like that and exploit it for all it is worth. I care that we stick to the rules, I am only too delighted if he can come up with something which sticks to the rules but surprises me and makes for a tougher game. I did, however, let him know I'd spotted it previously and was waiting for him to spot it - he is acutely aware of the psychological aspect of the war and there's no harm in letting him know I saw this option before he did. Hell extrapolate that I was assessing whether or not he'd spot it and how long it took him. He'll draw conclusions from that and so the mind-games begin.

In other news. He has asked for a 10 day ceasefire instead of 7 days. I'm happy to let him have this extra time as I want him to feel he got a fair shot with Japan.... Plus letting him get his ducks in a row means that there will be even more of a sense of helplesness when those ducks are shot... Initial strikes on Japan will be focussed on destroying enemy morale and will therefore feature strength on strength matchups designed to defeat the IJAAF and IJNAF fighter forces. He will have to defend his primary bases - Tokyo, Nagoya, Kobe, Hiroshima, Kejo, Shanghai and Hong Kong ( all major HI bases ) as well as Sapporo ( a proxy for oil produced in the Kuriles ). I'm going to run P-51H and P-47N sweeps over those bases as frequently as possible. My goal will be to whittle his numbers down and then, when the enemy fighter numbers fall sufficiently, engage in massed bomber raids

In the meantime I'll simply use the B-17s to bomb Formosa, keep that suppressed and have them gain experience ready for the time they upgrade to B-24s or B-29s and go to work over Japan proper. I will concentrate my B-29s over the eastern and northern portions of the country as I plan to hit the eastern portion ( Hiroshima to Nagasaki ) with B-17s basing out of my island bases. The USAAF will be hurt by these raids but they will also hurt the IJAAF and IJNAF and greatly increase the survivability of USN forces when they have to get in close to mainland Japan to form the patented "Ring O' Guns N' Xplody Stuff". Hmm, I quite like that, Operation ROGNXS.

PH initially wanted to do a full campaign with me as Japan but, honestly, I stopped working on EA some time back and resurrecting that will take time. So I suggested a game with me as the Allies as a stop-gap while I got EA into order.

Great News!! [&o] [&o]

ORIGINAL: Nemo121

Well, I see PH has outed himself as my opponent and NOT just a figment of my imagination...

You are assuming that he is not a figment of all our imaginations. [:'(]

Wow, PH vs Nemo. Should be fun. I hope you don't mind but I think being able to read both sides of this particular chess match will really provide insights that improve my game. As a result, I will not be offering substantive comments or suggestions in either AAR for OpSec reasons. Really looking forward to the fur flying.

Crib,

feel free to post in both. I trust people of good intentions to keep things reasonable. My problem isn't with the occasional minor hint or slip which might occur when someone follows both. My problem would be with someone just deciding to ruin the game by posting one player's entire plan to the other - as FatR did last time.

So, really, feel free to post in PH's and read mine if you wish, I trust you not to give anything significant away.

Witpqs,
Hehe, true. In that case FatR would be the only sane person here...... Hmm, nope, that's even less believable . I'm going to come down on the side of PH being real and someone else being a tad deluded [8D].

Hahahahahha, I'm going to spoil the game: He will try to sunk your CVs, destroy your fighters and kill your troops xDDDD. [:D][:D][:D]

Surprisingly, u have the same target [:-][:-]

ORIGINAL: traskott

Hahahahahha, I'm going to spoil the game: He will try to sunk your CVs, destroy your fighters and kill your troops xDDDD. [:D][:D][:D]

Surprisingly, u have the same target [:-][:-]

Oh, I'm going to tell PH you spilt his super secret plan!!!! [:D]