Focus Pacific - no Commander Cody for now

[Lowpe]

Well, we got past one month, and things look bleak for the Allies.

First and foremost, Japanese economy is on steroids. No need to ship resources back to the HI, there is a surplus. There is 3K and 4K deficit in fuel and oil, but really it is no problem.

I have captured Palembang, Miri, Brunei, and Djambi. Palembang was seriously trashed, the other not so bad. But look at my oil surplus!

[Lowpe]

Here is just another look at he economy. Supersize it!

[Lowpe]

Military conquests:

Just took Dutch Harbor, adding that to Unmak. Prepared to move on Alaska. I don't see how he can stop me, KB will support the strike.

Wake Island holds out, but not for much longer as a few reinforcements are coming. Just going thru the motions here.

CentPAC: Bumping up against the Line Islands. No real desire.

South Pacific: Took Tabiteuea, Rabaul, Lower Solomons, New Guinea north east coast. Invasion of Port Moresby started today, with 1 Division, 2 Brigades, backed by carriers and battleships. No hope here for Allies.

SRA: A little slower here, invasion of Balikpapen left two or three days ago. Took the base below Tarakan, took Jolo, landed on Mindanao, Manila will fall with next attack, Allies retreated everything to Clark.

Lower half of Sumatra conquered, Djambi and Palembang. Palemnbang got trashed.

Singers: No Mersing Gambit. 8 Divisions and hordes of Artillery are preparing to cross the river, probably will start in two days. Mop up north of Singers.

Rangoon: preparing to take Rangoon, and Pegu. Armored Division, Infantry Division and others are moving on Pegu. Might pull of a stunt and capture Rangoon with paratroops, as it is lightly held. Another division just left Bangkok for Pegu. Not RTA divisions.

There is a KB group west of Sumatra, with a surface groups of cruisers and destroyers. Another CVE group at Palembang until the airfields finish repairing. Another KB group for the Port Moresby invasion, another KB group for the Balikpapen invasion, and the big KB is heading for Seattle.

China: Moving on Sian, nothing can stop me. China tries an attack at Ichang, easily repulsed. Not really paying too much attention here.

Then the final clicker, I am moving almost 20K AV of troops to attack Russia once there is spring. Have started to assemble the air force for this endeavor. Russia is toast.

[Lowpe]

Mistakes:

1. I did not do a first turn, well I issued two orders for paratroop drops on islands in the PI. That was it, everything else was pre-programmed.

2. Just lost the Admiral Lutzow. Actually a few days ago...I forgot about her during our scenario upgrade and one of those CVL groups got her. She took 7 torpedoes and still wouldn't go down. German leadership and crew experience is insane.

3. No hurry. I am spending really very little time per turn...everything is there for the taking. Huge amounts of shipping and troop transport. Huge land forces.

4. Will spend over 2 million supply on r&d. Who cares...can't see how I can be stopped.

5. There is a huge number of Tracom eligible pilots, haven't bothered with it, but it would seriously change pilot training if you filled it.

Japan really is no fun. You are just so strong, if you want it, take it on multiple fronts. Poor Commander Cody lost his bomber forces trying to hit the oil in the SRA, I just didn't have the heart to tell him it doesn't matter.

Japan is simply so strong there is no joy in playing them despite all the toys.

[Lowpe]

Major ship losses:

[Lowpe]

Air losses

[paradigmblue]

Hi Lowpe,

I'm sorry that the mod isn't fun to play for you. I always knew that the balance with the Japanese economy would be a problem, as I have very little experience with this aspect of the game. I appreciate you taking the time to play the mod and provide the feedback so we can make it better.

From what I can see, there are some broad strokes that I can take to help make the industry more interesting and force the Japanese player to actually make some decisions.

*Drastically decrease starting resources, supply, fuel and oil on the home islands - this should be a stockpile that the Japanese player builds up, not starts out with.
*Remove artificial resource/supply/fuel generation from Tokyo (currently it produces a significant amount of supply, fuel, oil and resources without using industry to do so)


As far as pilot training goes, I'm moving the initial experience of new Japanese pilots to their levels in Scenario 1. Japan will still begin the game with very high experience pilots, but will then have to make the choice of whether to continue to fly those pilots or to move them to TRACOM.

In regards to having the OOB necessary to expand on multiple fronts, I'm not sure if I want to take that away. One of the original goals of this mod was to make possible a scenario where the Japanese player could potentially invade the West Coast in 44-45 if they played their cards right, just as an allied player is able to invade the Home Islands in that time frame in the stock scenario. By that time, Japan will still be at a massive disadvantage in men and material - even all of Japan's expanded OOB in this mod doesn't equal the reinforcements that the allies get in 43-45 - so I think rampaging across China and the Pacific right now in 42 is exactly what you should be doing. Every AAR I've read that goes on till 45 has essentially the same pattern:
1941-1942 - Japanese expansion and dominance of the Pacific Theatre, and either India or Australia as well.
1943 - High-water mark of Japanese expansion, allied player begins to push back.
1944-1945 - Japanese player is fully on the defensive, their goal is to make the allies pay for everything they take back
This is a necessity for Japan - it simply can't go head to head with allies in 1944-1945 due to being outnumbered so badly. With this mod however, I'd love to see a game that has an equal chance of ending with a siege of San Francisco as a Siege of Tokyo.

Yes, this means that the allies are going to get stomped on - a lot. I don't know if that's a bad thing.

I'm working on the changes detailed in this post. I hope that the result will be a Japanese economy that is still very, very strong, but also one that is not unstoppable. Please let me know if you have other specific suggestions that will help make the game more fun for the Japanese player.

Thank you again.

[Lowpe]

The economic changes sound good so there is a reason to go to war.

Perhaps if more of Japan's forces activate later than at game start. The very large starting Army, plus transports, plus the Amphib bonus makes almost anything doable.

Not giving up, just wanted to point out what I think are flaws. As Japan it just doesn't feel right being awash in resources/oil/supply from the get go. You want every expansion to be a trade off. Production today or supplies tomorrow kind of thing.

[paradigmblue]

You had a good point about the shipping as well - it was included that way because of the way the AI works. In the Ironman Scenario it would have been available for the AI when it needed it, but for a human player it is overkill. I've changed the arrival date of 9 of the LSDs and ~100 AKs to be spread out from 42 through the end of 44.

[paradigmblue]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe
Then the final clicker, I am moving almost 20K AV of troops to attack Russia once there is spring. Have started to assemble the air force for this endeavor. Russia is toast.

Lowpe, what would your thoughts be on simply activating Russia in the mod?

This would give the allies about 10,000 additional AV at start, hundreds of more aircraft, and open another front that Japan would have to worry about. Don't get me wrong - Japan's forces in Manchuria are more than a match for the Soviet Union in 1941-42, but it would be an additional drain on Japan's resources to wage war on this front, and Japanese AV used to counter the Soviets is AV that is tied up not being used in the DEI, India or Australia. It would also open up a facet of the game that not many people get to playing Scenario 1.

Because Russia doesn't get REALLY scary until June/July of 45 (when they get all their division level reinforcements), I don't think it would be too unbalancing in the allies' favor either. Manchuria is so strong for Japan in this mod that the Allied player would have their hands full trying to grab territory.

[Lowpe]

It is totally unfair that Japan gets to preposition her armies and crush Russia. Perhaps activate them, but have a HR that hostilities haven't started yet and are up to Japan to initiate. That way Russia could at least move some troops and get ready.

How is that.

I am looking forward to fighting Russians. And I am looking forward to the end of the Amphib bonus...it is my lest favorite time period of the game, so take my criticism of not enjoying playing Japan with a little bit of a grain of salt.[:)]