Groundhog Day! - No NJP

[Mike McCreery]

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna

ORIGINAL: Wargmr




He left a unit that I was able to attack. All the aircraft factories disappeared to be replaced by .... nothing.

I have the HI and LI factories but nothing else. The Russians took it over, not the Chinese.

I think that's as it's supposed to be. Allied aircraft factories will get converted to VEH/ARM factories (I think), while Japanese aircraft factories just go poof.

I haven't really been keeping up with this game, other than checking in a few times a while back once I heard about the Russia thing. Honestly, even though he's going to get beat out of China in short order, it looks like he got a LOT of LCU VPs this game. Was it from invading Russia? That's a lot of VPs for the Allies to make up, and if it was from Russia it changes the calculus from "Definitely don't ever invade Russia, ever" to "Eh, maybe..... but only if you can harvest VPs." Maybe.

Must be a recent change. Before I upgraded last April or so to the latest official version I was taking Japanese held bases and if the base was taken by combat the aircraft, engine and armament factories all became vehicle factories, and the merchant/naval shipyards became repair shipyards. There was some reduction in the number of industry points with the changeover. But if the base flipped by occupation, the industries did not switch type and there was no loss of the number of industry "points of production".
I was never able to determine if the vehicle factories actually made any vehicles for my pools. The captured aircraft factories and merchant/naval shipyards produced nothing.

There are a few differences that may account for it. Harbin is not on the Japanese mainland and not subject to VP points against the Japanese. I think also most of the factories were player built although there may have been some there originally.

Since the replenishment rate is set on a schedule for the Allies I do not believe any vehicle factories would be useful to them.

[Mike McCreery]

Hankow... Ugh...

Lost 10K troops. I was hoping that being out of supply would be more of a deficit.

[Mike McCreery]

Changchun


In a typical stoner move I must have clicked on one army unit in the stack and then intended to copy the move to the rest of the armies. The order must not have happened because I sat through 5 minutes of bombardments in eager anticipation for a YUGE (huge with a new york accent) battle. Then I sat through another 5 minutes of bombardments with one unit attacking.

On one hand that sucks. On the other hand the one unit attacking managed to drop the forts from 3 to 2. I have never seen that happen before but since most players would have attacked with the full army the forts would likely have dropped anyway.

[Mike McCreery]

Anshan just fell. This means I have a clear shot down the coast of open terrain in Korea.

[obvert]

Wow. If you can block the rail it's lights out for the Manchurian Army.

[Mike McCreery]

End of April. A massive series of naval battles results in big losses on both sides.

The Allies lost 5 battleships and 3 heavy cruisers. The Japanese lost 4 battleships with another showing heavy fire/heavy damage and another heavy fire.

Tactical win for NJP but it leaves him much shorter of working battleships. On the plus side my fast battleship group suffered light damage.

[Mike McCreery]

Early May 1945.

After capturing Guzan by paratroop I was able to move armor and 2 divisons in and open a path through Keijo. Some of my armor may have moved too far and is now moving back but the plan is to move a large stack directly to Fusan and take that city and anything in the open along the way.

I am moving the russians into blocking positions to hold NJP in the woods/Rough in northern Korea while I move the British and American troops down south to take on Fusan.

The Marines are prepping for Shiminoseki and I have plans in the works for other allied landings. The goal will be to take the open central plains of western China and then move east and west as opposition permits.

[Mike McCreery]

End of May 1945

NJP has done well against my land forces in Korea. I am getting major disablements trying to attack him in the jungle rough terrain. Have to go slowly or I am not helping myself.

Also having problems with several bases like Fusan. When I try to bombard, NJP puts surface fleets in my way in the ports. The fleets die but my bombardments change to surface combats and are suddenly subject to mines which are tearing up my destroyers. I could counter with planes but the CAP can be murderous...

Fusan should fall within a few weeks so that wont be an issue anymore. Once it does fall and hopefully before July I can launch an amphibious invasion onto the home islands from that base.

However, before that happens I suddenly got massive reinforcements in Russia. I am seriously thinking about sailing my amphibious fleet over to Russia and delivering 4000+ AV onto Hokkaido.

[Mike McCreery]

Score, end of May 1945

I did not gain much in NJP's lead during the month of May. As it stands I still need 34,000 + whatever gains are made.

The things I am not doing to gain points are to strategically bomb Japan and/or bomb ports. I probably should be doing this but I am not excited about trying to end the game faster. Once I invade the home islands points should change rapidly.

[Rio Bravo]

Wargmr-

I can't imagine how you can keep track of everything going on!

Job well done on controlling so many bases versus the Japanese number of bases controled.

Best Regards,

-Terry

[Mike McCreery]

Sometimes I cant!!

Late June 1945. NJP clubbed me good today. I made a mistake with a CV fleet. Meant it to continue escorting an amphib group but I disbanded and created a new one. The Allied task forces cannot be given a soviet port for base so it sailed toward fusan and into his entire air arm.

I lost a CV outright and scuttled another one along with a CL. I am sure NJP will have the play by play in his AAR. Disappointing that I lost my first big ones to a mistake but oh well.

I do not need my CV's anymore other than as escorts for the soviets. Fusan has been taken and has about 40,000 troops left in 58 units. Attack going in today. Once I clear Fusan I will make it a major airbase and use it to send troops to the home islands under strong CAP.

[Mike McCreery]

I am anticipating reading NJP's AAR at the end of all this ;]

[Mike McCreery]

Mid July 1945

A large strike just went in on the Hiroshima airport where 500 fighters were stationed. It was a bloodbath with the allies losing over 200 aircraft to over 500 for the Japanese. It was a nice margin until I found out about 200 Japanese planes were trainers.

Still, it reduces his pools.

Within a few days troop ships begin loading for Matsue. I will take Oki-Shoto and invade Matsue with 3 divisions. I will airdrop into Tokuyama to prevent reinforcements from the east.

My plan is to invade with the bulk of my forces at Shiminoseki and move from there. I have troops prepping for Tottori as well. I want to take the plains area of Japan first and save the hard terrain for later if necessary.

[Mike McCreery]

July 20, 1945

The invasion of Japan has begun. 4 divisions land at Matsue on the northern side of Honshu. The stacking limit is 70,000 and they currently have 51,000 in the hex. I should have brought some armor or anti-armor to this invasion but did not prep for it. I was hoping to take him out quickly but he already has 800 AV in the hex naturally and I am sure he has some units on active reserve ready to strat move so it would be more.

I believe there is more advantage to me digging in and defending rather than trying to attack an equal or larger force. Troops are loading up for Shimoseki which is the primary target. I have a number of divisions prepping for Tottori as well and will use them to cut off what is loading up at Matsue.

[Mike McCreery]

July 23, 1945

Troops landed at Matsue and the turn after they arrived another 1000AV was in the hex. So I did activate NJP's rapid reactionary force.

On July 21, boats loaded to invade Shiminoseki and on the 22nd they hit the beaches. There were over 1000 guns defending the beaches.

On July 22 the infantry rested up for an assault and and on the 23rd, Shiminoseki fell to the first allied attack at 10-1 odds. I am guessing the 6 or 7 naval bombardments plus getting plastered by every bomber within range helped the disruption along with all the landing ship guns. I was also encouraged to see that the units were having supply issues.

Now that I have secured a foothold on Honshu it should make it very difficult for the Japanese to resist further invasion.

[BBfanboy]

Lookin' good at Shimonoseki with your cork in the bottleneck! He only has a railway bridge coming from Kyushu so he shouldn't be able to march much in from the west for a while. I think crossing there on foot only yields four miles a day.

[Mike McCreery]

Mid August 1945

Matsue just fell. Two days ago I had a landing at Tottori which was already owned by me. There were 70,000 troops protected by a CVE convoy with CV's 2 hexes out providing additional CAP. It wasnt nearly enough and NJP overwhelmed and trashed 9 CVE's. On the bright side the convoy remained essentially intact and unloaded sucessfully. The next turn I got the CV's into the hex and he lost 500 planes.

2 day total was 1200 planes for the japanese and 500 planes + at least 1000 points in CVE's and escorts lost on the allied side.

Allies still need 28,000 VP's for the win and I think the Japanese will pass the historic surrender date. Most of my forces are prepping for Osaka/Kyoto and hopefully if I manage to break the enemy there I can win the game.

[Lowpe]

Just amazing carnage in this game!

Hats off to both of you.[&o]

[Mike McCreery]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

Just amazing carnage in this game!

Hats off to both of you.[&o]

The amazing carnage on my side is quite possibly a strategic failure but it sure is fun!!!

[Mike McCreery]

NJP has passed the Japanese historical date for surrender... He wins!!!

Awesome game play!!! In the 2nd game NJP tripped off the emergency troops for Australia and completely took over Tasmania before retreating to put up a masterful defense well into the fall of 1945.

I will get a 2-1 victory eventually, within a few months is likely. I still need 20,000+ VP's though. Going to play it to the end.