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This is the AAR for my play through as the Japanese. I have not completed a play through for either side in the past. I've only played as the Allies to about March of '42. This should be an interesting experience.

Thanks to all that have given advice in my other thread, "Trying Out Japan." I hope this AAR is entertaining, and possibly educational for those that, like me, aren't really sure where to begin when playing as Japan.


Setup

I'm playing the game with Player Upgrades turned off. I have 15 day variability in reinforcements, and I have the historical first turn turned off. Difficulty is on Normal. I was told that is probably too easy, but since this is my first attempt at this, I am OK with easy.

Style

I will try to include enough detail to make my intentions understandable, without getting into the minutia of every order given. Similarly, I'm intending to highlight significant outcomes, or surprising results. I'll be a little heavy on my first turn detail, but after that, there are likely several things being done that I don't comment on. I think a moment by moment account would kill me, and be boring to review. I will likely group items together by week, unless specific items need more detail.

Tools

I am using three tools: Tracker, CombatReporter, and WitPChecklist, which is an app I wrote to allow me to put in reminders that will pop up when I get to the game turn I set.

Acknowledgement

I'm going to make some really poor decisions. I've taken some of the advice offered from the forum, including various documents to read (Japan Econ Primer, Japan Prod Primer to name a couple), and I used the Japanese Setup spreadsheet to get an understanding of how some approach the game.

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The first few days of the war is event-packed, so initially I'll provide a day-by-day account of the major actions and outcomes. Eventually most of this will be done in summary, and I will only highlight major operations and significant battles or changes in the progress of the war. For example, I call out the various locations I set to upgrade on Dec. 7. When I do one-off upgrades in later turns, I don't call these out.

In reviewing my notes, I've done some pretty silly things. But, I'm playing the game for my pleasure, and to try different strategies that may not make a lot of sense in the long run.

At the end of each month, I'll include a summary that covers ships sunk, bases taken, and similar information.

Let's begin!

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December 7, 1941

Orders Issued:

Set the following bases to upgrade. Unless otherwise noted, Port, Airfield, and Fortification are all upgraded at the listed locations.

Canton (China)
Tsingtao (China)
Cam Ranh Bay (Vietnam)
Kompong Trach (Vietnam) - Airfield, Forts only
Saigon (Vietnam)
Soc Trang (Vietnam) - Airfield, Forts only
Fusan (Korea)
Moppo (Korea)
Rashin (Korea)
Haiphong (Indochina)
Eniwetok (Marshalls) - Port, Forts only
Saipan (Marianas)
Truk (Carolines) - Port, Forts only
Hakodate (Japan) - Port, Airfield only
Kagoshima (Japan)
Niigata (Japan)
Ominato (Japan)
Sendai (Japan)
Muroran (Hokkaido) - Port only
Sapporo (Hokkaido)
Shikuka (Sakhalin)
Pescadores (Formosa)
Takao (Formosa)
Bangkok (Thailand)

Industry:

Stopped 240 Armament factories
Added 138 Vehicle factories
Added 73 Naval Shipyards
Stopped 200 Merchant Shipyards
Stopped R&D for most of the 1944 and later airframes.

Note on Economy and Industry: I used the Economy Primer suggestions as a basis for the changes to factories, etc. I did not follow it exactly, but did lean on it heavily. It's a great document for getting you started. There are some things I don't yet understand about how it works and how Tracker works, and hopefully none of my departures from that document are critical in the first part of the war.

Naval actions:

Hawaiian Island Subs
Dispatched to picket between Johnson Island and Hawaii. Picket of California coast, and Australian East Coast.

Sending cargo ships and some escorts to resource hubs to move to Japan:
Toyohara, Sapporo, Kushiro, Hakkodate, Keijo, Fusan, Shanghai, and Port Arthur

Sending most remaining cargo ships not at a resource, supply, or oil center to Tokyo or Osaka.
Places with large numbers of units, like Takao, Truk, Pescadores, and similar are keeping their transports.

APs being moved to Tokyo.

Ordered Invasion TFs to depart for Kavieng, Shortlands, Aitape, Wewak, Hollandia, Manus

Note on Naval actions: I also used the Economy Primer suggestions to configure my starting convoys for resources. I followed it closely (more so than I did with factories).

Ground

Transferring numerous ART and ENG units from Manchukuo Garrison to China
Sending some Infantry divisions to China from Manchukuo Garrison

Units in Indochina sent to Malaya.
7th RTA split up to garrison 3 cities--Thani, Ubon, and Nakhon Ratchisima


Strat Terminals:
Units strat moving from Eastern China are being sent to the following bases
Kaoping, Suchow, Peiping, Anyang, Chengting


Major Divisions removed from Manchukuo Garrison:
23rd Div, 6th Army
14th Div, 6th Army
12th Div, 3rd Army (as well as most of the rest of the 3rd Army)
11th Div, 5th Army

Air
31st Sentai (Ann) transferred from Siem Reap to Cam Rahn Bay
77th Sentai (Nate) transferred from Siem Reap to Kempong Trach

Set all training squadrons to range 0 and 100% train. I dumped all pilots in training squadrons into the pool, and refilled the squadrons. I'll use these to fill holes later.
Turned off upgrades on some training groups.

Limited range of most bombers to Normal instead of extended. Some exceptions for bombers already assigned.


AAR

Reports following the attack on Pearl Harbor indicated significant damage to the BBs stationed there. None have been reported sunk, but a second wave attack is planned, and should devastate the BBs. Moderate losses to air units: 18 Zero, 17 Kate, 13 Val.

Attack on Midway did significant damage to the Port facility, as well as the Airfield. No resistance was met.

Ships Reported Sunk:
BB Prince of Wales
BC Repulse
CA San Francisco
DD Aylwin
DD Tenedos

Captured Bases:
Batan Island

Ships Lost:
5 SSX

Home Islands exploded with transport activity:

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December 8, 1941

My initial goals are to push the Chinese westward, so that I can free up some units in Eastern China that now must protect various cities. I need to get cities properly garrisoned, as well. I do not have any plans for major operations, outside of those already kicked off by the game engine--invasions of Philippines, Malaya, Northern Borneo, and the Northeast shore of New Guinea. I expect about the end of December, I'll start having some regular operations of larger scale.

Orders Issued:
Stopped disembark at Batan Island. I'll move those supplies to Aparri or Vigan after those landings occur.
Formed up TF134 (BB, BB, DD, DD, DD, DD) to patrol East of Philippines for escaping ships, and to be ready to counter any actions near Guam and the Marshalls.
Formed up TF136 (CVL, CVE, BB, BB, CL, CS, DD, DD) for suppression of units in Hong Kong. Also will assist with bombing.

All land units north of Hong Kong ordered to Move to Hong Kong to begin invasion.

Confirmed all factories expanded to the values desired. Needed to bump a few up (didn't have the supply the previous turn).

Moving some Hankow Arty north, and one unit to Wuchang.


AAR

Ships Reported Sunk:
DD Pope
DD Express
xAKL Montanes

Captured Bases:
Makin Atoll

Reports indicate another devastating attack at Pearl Harbor. Toying with the idea of holding out for a third day of attacks, but only lost a few planes in this attack, and it may be nice to keep losses limited. Day one losses were pretty significant--Day Two losses were: 3 Kate, 6 Val.

All 8 BBs reported to have received further hits, and all considered Heavily Damaged.

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December 9, 1941


Orders Issued:
Turning off upgrades for all air groups currently set to Training.
Converted Nagasaki/Sasebo Armament Factory (it had been shut down) into a Vehicle Factory. It was a size 30 factory. I'll recover this through building up other factories.

Increased Okayama Armament Factory from 5 to 10.

Sending TF1 home. Set waypoints to carry it due north initially, then west to pass near Midway. TF2 will meet with TF1 to refuel prior to arrival at Midway.

AAR

Combat units arrive in Hong Kong

Captured Bases:
Tarawa
Kwangchowan


Ships Lost:
1 DMS

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December 10, 1941


Orders Issued:

Transferred 65th Sentai from 2nd Air Group to China Expeditionary and transferred to Kaifeng. Pilots have reasonable experience (57).
Planes in Hankow set to attack units in open terrain near Changsha.


AAR

Ships Reported Sunk:
BB Maryland
BB West Virginia
BB Oklahoma
BB Arizona
BB California
DD Tucker
AG Arctic

Ships lost:
AK Kaga Maru
xAK Kurohime Maru

Kaga Maru loss hurts. It was being escorted by 2 DD. Sunk by SS Skipjack


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December 11 - 13, 1941


This is my CS Convoy strategy initially (below). This should pull resources from major collection spots, and move them to Japan.

Manchukuo Garrison dropped below 9000. Sending some units back.

12 CS Convoys now active

Orders Issued:
Starting to press in China. I want to clean up around Wuchang and Hankow, as well as Kaifeng further to the north, in order to open up the strat move routes.

Moving some engineers to Aparri from Takao to start working on airfield and expanding port.

Organizing Garrisons in China to better meet requirements

AAR


Solid results for some bombers in China hitting units out in the open. Many ART units have arrived, and are unpacking.

Retracted Sunk reports:
DD Express

Ships Reported Sunk:
BB Nevada
AK Arcturus
CL Danae
CL Durban
CL Mauritius
CL Caledon

Captured Bases:
Aparri
Vigan
Laoag
Legaspi
Calayan
Miri
Kweiteh

Ships lost:
xAK
AMC

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December 14 - 20, 1941

Turning off Upgrades for units in Manchukuo Garrison
15 CS Convoy now active

Orders Issued:

Continuing to clean up Garrisons
Reloading units from Batan Island for transport to Vigan
Loading troops for defense at Foochow
Sending second wave to Wake, after very bad battle result
Pressing attack west of Sinyang
Retreating from Ichang--can't maintain supply line at this time.
Pushing Chinese west of railway between Sinyang and Kaifeng



AAR


Spotted CV Enterprise near Truk - Unknown direction or composition

Ships Reported Sunk:
CL Ceres
CM
xAP
2 xAK
xAKL
xAK Herstein


Captured Bases:
Catbalogan
Shortlands
Aitape
Wewak
Manus
Hollandia
Victory Point
Kota Bharu
Kavieng
Hwaiyin
Pakhoi
Sibuyan
Burias

Ships Lost:
1 xAK
3 xAKL

---

December 21 - 27, 1941

Orders Issued:
Working on relieving Sinyang. Two pitched battles occurring in the city, and to the southeast.
Strat moving units in Japan to Nagasaki that will eventually be transported.
Beginning push on Changsha
Loading units from New Guinea to assault Rabul


AAR
Hong Kong has been captured, falling on 21 December. Wake Island followed the next day.

Ichang occupied by Chinese after Japan pulled out, to shore up other interests--specifically the area East of Ichang to the railway.

Units landing from Babelaob take Davao on 27 December. Supply unloaded as well.

Units in Foochow were overrun by Chinese, and had to retreat. Foochow now under Chinese control.


Ships Reported Sunk:
4 xAKL
2 xAK
AM Lark


Captured Bases:
Kuching
Hong Kong
Tuguegarao
Wake Island
Tavoy
Alor Star
Masbate
Naga
Camiguin
Madang
Davao
Abemama

Ships Lost:
4 xAK
1 xAKL
DD Tachikaze

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December 28 - 31, 1941

Orders Issued:
Transferred 1st KU K-1 (34 Nell Bombers) and 10 Zeros to Luchow to support fighting in open areas.
Running supply from Saigon to Koto Bharu. Planning to move some air assets there.

Brunei falls on 29 December with surprisingly few casualties.

Units land in Rabul on 30 December, and gauge the enemy force to be considerably stronger than expected. Units reload and pull out, awaiting a more viable force in the future.

AAR

Ships Reported Sunk:
1 xAKL
2 xAK
3 xAP
1 TK
1 KV

Ships Lost:
1 xAKL
TK Itukusima Maru

Captured Bases:
Taiping
Bayombong
Brunei
Maiana
Tsiaotso
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December 1941 Summary


Enemy Ships Sunk:

BB Arizona
BB California
BB Maryland
BB Nevada
BB Oklahoma
BB Prince of Wales
BB West Virginia
BC Repulse
CA San Francisco
CL Caledon
CL Ceres
CL Danae
CL Durban
CL Mauritius
DD Aylwin
DD Pope
DD Tenedos
DD Tucker

AG Arctic
AK Arcturus
AM Lark

9 xAK
7 xAKL
4 AP
1 CM
1 KV
1 TK

Ships Lost:

DD Tachikaze
AK Kaga Maru

5 SSX
1 AMC
1 DMS
7 xAK
7 xAKL

1 TK (Itukusima Maru)


Bases Captured:

Batan Island
Makin Atoll
Tarawa
Kwangchowan
Aparri
Vigan
Laoag
Legaspi
Calayan
Miri
Kweiteh
Catbalogan
Shortlands
Aitape
Wewak
Manus
Hollandia
Guam
Victoria Point
Kota Bharu
Kavieng
Hwaiyin
Pakhoi
Sibuyan
Burias
Kuching
Hong Kong
Tuguegarao
Wake
Tavoy
Alor Star
Masbate
Naga
Camiguin
Madang
Davao
Abemama
Taiping
Bayombong
Brunei
Maiana
Tsiaotso

Bases Lost:

Ichang
Foochow


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and WitPChecklist, which is an app I wrote to allow me to put in reminders that will pop up when I get to the game turn I set

Pray tell us more....

Roger

ORIGINAL: Roger Neilson 3

Pray tell us more....

Roger

Hi Roger,

Here's a screenshot. It's a dirt-simple app. In the screenshot, I have it showing future items, but unchecking that, and anything assigned to a turn in the future won't show up. You can double click them and edit them, you can right click to delete or clear them (I can't exactly remember what I wanted to "clear" them for...") It writes to its own file when you
"add," "update," or "delete" an item (so, sort of an auto-save).

Any chance of trying that out, I hate using paper to keep a record of stuff to do?

Roger

ORIGINAL: ChadS


Setup

Difficulty is on Normal.

If this is a stock scenario, the AI will start to fail in 30 days and pretty much crash within 90 days. You need to play at HARD as a minimum on stock scenarios.

ORIGINAL: PaxMondo

ORIGINAL: ChadS


Setup

Difficulty is on Normal.

If this is a stock scenario, the AI will start to fail in 30 days and pretty much crash within 90 days. You need to play at HARD as a minimum on stock scenarios.

Great to see your AAR here ChadS! You have had great results already sinking 8 BB/BC types. As PaxMondo says, the game will be short if you continue on this setting and smash everything early with almost no losses of your own. You don't want to be bored, do you?

ORIGINAL: Roger Neilson 3

Any chance of trying that out, I hate using paper to keep a record of stuff to do?

Roger

I'll need to clean it up some, but yeah. Give me a few days. [;)]

That would be good, thanks

Roger

Roger,

Here's the link: WitP Checklist

I offer it as-is, with no warranty or support, etc., etc., etc. I did not obfuscate it from the original MSIL (for those that know what that means), and I can supply the source code if anyone really, really wants to see it. Basically, I have no reason to believe it will cause anyone a problem on their Windows based system.

Things to know:

1. You must have the .Net Framework 4.0 or later installed (That's Microsoft.Net framework).
2. The zip contains 2 files--the executable, and a config. The config technically allows you to change the name of the save file, though I haven't messed with it to test it. I figure 1 checklist is enough for me.
3. The save file will be created automatically after you create an entry. It saves automatically after every update to the file, or when you close the app.
4. You may have to run it "as administrator" for it to work (since it writes to the drive--some configurations shouldn't require this).
5. It is possible for the file to get corrupt. I haven't had this happen, but thought I should at least mention it. If you back up your other tools (Tracker, etc.) you probably should back this up, too.
6. Turn must be entered as a number. The other two fields (location and text) are not required, except one of them must have something in it.
7. I can't at all recall what I did the "repeat every turn" checkbox for, and I don't even know for sure it works. I left it in, to keep from having to retest everything, and it probably works just fine...if you find a use for it, great.
8. You right-click on items to "clear" them or "delete" them. Deleting them is permanent. Clearing them is not. I think I did that so you could go back and reuse an item over and over, without having to guess when you would next need it. I think I intended for this to replace the "every turn" check, but I'm not sure.

Good luck. I'll check back for questions in a few days!