Global War : a Japanese AAR

[yvesp]

And even Formosa...


Nov/Dec 44 impulse 1

[yvesp]

And while, under the rain, the western allies manage to advance and push the German forces from their strong positions, Rabaul falls.


Nov/Dec 44 impulse 1

[yvesp]

And Formosa is no better.


Nov/Dec 44 impulse 1

[yvesp]

This second impulse is a nightmare of possibly ugly decisions for Japan, none of which looks remotely able to stop the allied onslaught.

This is David against Goliath, but David is getting bashed...

Choices:
- Do nothing and preserve the forces for some serious opportunity, such as trying to prevent the invasion of Japan, or reinforcements there
- Move the fleet in the 1 or even possibly 0 box and hope to find the 0 box allied fleet bringing in reinforcements ; if found by the fleet in high waters, somethinf bad may happen, although Japan now has a 8 land based fighter squadron. Is it enough ? The US just have the copy in Korea...
- Move the fleet in the 0 or 1 box of the Bismark Sea and hope to engage the US fleet there which is at a disadvantage. So what ? The damage (Rabaul) has been done. And even if the US lose 2 or 3 carriers, the main fleet still stays out of reach. And of course, if the fleets fail to meet, the British fleet and its host of carriers is sure to move. What then ?
- Move a host of cruisers in the Pacific to try and disrupt the reinforcements ? They are far and screened ; chances are minimal to achieve anything. Of course, this is not extremely risky, but it would actually look like being doing somethig while really doing nothing.
- Bring in reinforcements from Japan to Mandchuria ? Whoa... Considering the sizes of the US and Russian armies there, its like sending cows to the butcher ; not metionning the nice US fleet that would have a 30% chance of sinking everything.
- Try and disentangle the army in China and bring it near the coast to rapatriate whatever can be salvaged ? Sounds good. But oh, the coast really looks far away ; and first, we must bring in supplies. So it requires moving a convoy, pray that it is stealthy enough and that it stick to the next impulse. And that there is nothing more important than a land move to do on the next impulse... And under the rain, we are going to move what ? one hex ? gorgeous...


For Germany, things are simpler. Considering that there is no space to move around, and anyway nothing smart to do, it pass, pass, pass... except once in a while where moving a unit looks smart.

Not moving the fleet looks smart. In the Sea of Japan, the chance of finding the US fleet under the right conditions are about 7%. But the US will find the Japanese fleet on 30% chance. Over two impulses (before the fleet can possibly move back ?), that gives about 50% chances to the US for destroying the Japanese fleet, against barely 15% of achieving anything serious against the reinforcement fleet... Which is itself would only be a small blow. In the Bismarck sea, the odds are better ; but the uselessness of it smells bad ; not to mention that the oil reserves are only good for one move now... That would look like a waste...

The other options suck as well. So, "passing" (almost) seems the smartest thing to do, apart for trying and moving a unit by rail in Canton, if one such unit can be found...

It looks like Japan will become more and more passive to preserve their forces After all, ther are only 6 turns left!

[yvesp]

I am now reaching the point where the game is becoming unplayable.

Each land move takes eons for no reason. Moving most units put the game in limbo for one minute or more. When its a HQ, its even worse... I wonder what the game does, but if its the supply routine there is yet ample room from improvement in this regard : when a unit moves into a hex and that's obvious to me just by looking that the unit is still in supply and that it did not interfer with the supply of enemy units, why shouldn't the game see this in a blink, I wonder! I believe that the game reruns full routines without some simple local rules that answer such questions obviously.

I also experiment nasty bugs such as the British planes landed in Berlin. I could not reproduce it, but I saw it when my land move was almost done ; I had to restart from the ground strike phase. In the land move phase, I also had a crash, which was not reproduced.

[yvesp]

The Japanese still try the impossible, without risking much.

Its good that they only sent a convoy...

[yvesp]

As expected, the overwhelming Russian force takes Kirin.

[yvesp]

And the USA capture Port Arthur, with the help of British engineers who will repair the port at the end of the turn: The US fleet has found its next port, and the Britsh fleet should soon join in Formosa.

[yvesp]

On the next impulse, the Japanese manage to stick a convoy.

Units begin to disengage from the front and run to the coastline : what is there to keep anyway now in China ? Except possibly Shangaï, although that looks high unlikely, even if it were already garrisonned.

[yvesp]

The turn doesn't seem to stop, despite the bad weather.

The Russian takes this opportunity to finish off with Mandchuria, while they attack Dresden but fail.

Things are going much faster than expected, despite the awfull weather which the Russians seem to like a lot.

[yvesp]

The turn continues, and the convoy sticks: the japanese manage to pull off a land action, which will let it retreat its units in a (safer ???) position closer to the coastline.

[yvesp]

And finaly the turn ends. The situation is not good!
Mandchuria is fallen, and China is likely to follow very fast.
Retreating was anyway necessary, since the northern front relied on two Mandchurian territorials, which would have gone on the fall of the country.

[yvesp]

The destructions in Nov/Dec 44 are minimal, thanks to the bad weather.

However, with but 4 production in Germany and 8 in Japan, there is nothing to be glad about: this is still much more than what is being produced. Anyway, as the German, the Japanese is forced now to the defense of the home country : there is just no military operation that could divert the allies.


Germany falls to 4BP, while Japan falls to 8 BP. However, Germany manages to reorganized most of its oil units, thanks to the remaining synth oil plants.

Japan builds:
- 1 garrison
- 1 inf
- 1 Ftr2

China builds:
- 1 Lnd4
- 1 mech div

The Commonwealth builds:
- 3 offensives
- 2 territorials (mostly for boosting Indian garrison)
- save 10BP

The USA build:
- 5 offensives
- 4 Ftr2
- 2 pilots
- 2 infantries
- 1 mech

Russia builds:
- 2 offensives
- 1 armor
- 1 inf HQ
- 2 militias
- repair one oil filed
- 2 Ftr2
For the allies, most units build now will not have any influence in the war, as by the time they reach the front line, the game will be over.

This turn:
- Formosa, Czechoslovakia were conquered by the Commonwealth
- Mandchuria was conquered by the USA (just wondering how the game decides this! ??? The USSR have more units, more combat factor, a better HQ ; they hold the capital while the USA control both factories)
- Estonia (a leftover...) was conquered by the USSR

Anyway: this means that there will be no compulsory peace between Russia and Japan since Russia doesn't control much in Mandchuria!


Nov/Dec 44, end of turn

[yvesp]

At the start of the January 45 turn, Germnay is beginning to feel the heat. Berlin is under siege, with little room to move around. However, keeping the line to the Sudeten is vital: here stand the last two remaining synth oil plants.

The weather is extremely bad which fits very well the axis: this should result in a short turn and few losses. In addition under cover of the Blizzard, the japanese manage to repatriate a mountain unit and the armor corps. That much to defend the mother country. With luck, the transports won't be found by the USA this turn, and the supplies might flow the whole turn.

On their side, the allies are now going to burn offensive uipon offensive, to bring in more reinforcements and put the pressure on the places where action is still possible under these weather conditions. For the western allies, nothing will happen in Germany!


Jan/Feb 45, impulse 1

[Centuur]

Can you post that bug on conquest of Manchuria in the tech forum. Manchuria should have become conquered by the USSR and not by the US.

Also: can you put a game with the long calculation times in the Tech forum, so Steve can check on this.

It's always interesting to see how fast the Axis demise is going if they lose the access to oil...

[yvesp]

ORIGINAL: Centuur
Can you post that bug on conquest of Manchuria in the tech forum. Manchuria should have become conquered by the USSR and not by the US.

Also: can you put a game with the long calculation times in the Tech forum, so Steve can check on this.

It's always interesting to see how fast the Axis demise is going if they lose the access to oil...

OK, I'll do both.

About oil, it accelerates somewhat their demise, but not in a large factor. There is always enough oil to reorg the essential, mostly these units that are disorganized : one can live with a few fighters and no bommbers. Of course, once oil is 0, then there is a very large problem ; but that only happnes once the country is virtually fallen : even Germany is not at 0, and it is not in good shape!

[yvesp]

The allied naval turn is particularly long on a super combined.
Especially when it is expected that the next impulse will also be of that kind! It is necessary to think some impulses in advance: the allied objective is to reconquer lost territories (islands and such) as fast as possible before the invasion of Japan, which is not yet possible. Ship reserves are to be kept in order to be able to recover units that invaded in one impulse and have them invade a second, even possibly a third time...

The first step is to continue putting all Japanese units not in Japan out of supply, i.e. destroying convoys.

This works well in the Sea of Japan. An interesting consequence is that the Japanese fleet in Ominato is OoS (but it can put itself again in supply by successfully placing a convoy back)

[yvesp]

In the Mariannas, the allies fail to locate the Japanese ships, but a lone sub succeeds in finding the Japanese in the Sea of Japan, despite the heavy storms.

[yvesp]

The result is impressive, as a large part of the japanese fleet is disabled. However, the US fleet fails on the second round, and the Japanese succeed in keeping their convoy in the area.

[yvesp]

The Japanese want to abort to Ominato, which is protected from air strikes by fighter cover, and, more efficiently, by distance!

On their way back, the TRS are ambushed.