GEACPS Samurai - Macho (A) vs JochenHeiden (J) Scenario 1

[BananaConvention]

Good Afternoon Gentlemen! I am your Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere Samurai.

This is a stock Scenario 1 Campaign with no mods or variants, on version 26B

I've waited a while to post this as I wanted to be sure this campaign was going to be viable. I started this campaign around October 2023, and once the Hellsen campaign concluded I have devoted all of my energies to this. The date of the campaign that I'll be picking up here is 7 January 1942. As always, I am recording my turns and posting them on Youtube. The playlist can be found here:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... KrrG16Ac8s

We started with some standard House Rules but decide to do away with almost all of them. He and I have similar backgrounds (military) and I trust him to avoid very gamey things and known exploits. This is our only HR now, if you don't see it listed below, it's technically allowable. I am experimenting with this "less is more" HR set:

1 )Night bombing attacks limited to 85% and above moonlight.

Here are the major highlights that have occurred to date:

1) Captured Singapore on 30 Dec 1941
2) Captured Clark Field and Manilla in mid December 1941, only 495 AV of enemy troops remain bottled up on Bataan
3) Captured Ambon, Makassar, Manado, all of Timor, and most of the flag bases in the DEI Islands
4) Captured Merak and Oosthaven on Sumatra and Java to establish beachheads
5) Will capture Rangoon on 8 Jan 1942
6) Captured Port Moresby on 22 Dec 1941
7) Captured Noumea & all of New Caledonia on 31 Dec 1941
8) Significant Gains in China; we will capture Sian on 8 Jan 1941, and are one hex from Ankang
9) Wenchow fell on 10 Dec 1941, Hong Kong on 12 Dec 1941
10) We discovered Mancho has gone for the "Fortress Palembang" strat, and he has almost 80K troops at Palembang (BAD)

Overall I am loving living on the edge of Scenario 1, it's a lot more taxing and nerve-racking than Scenario 2 which I will never touch again. I'm going to upload a few screenshots of the current situations. After this post, I'll be posting links to my videos as I upload them. I look forward to any questions you may have as we start this thread!

[BananaConvention]

Today was the day I was planning on taking Sian from the Chinese, but the stalwart defenders there had another plan. Still, they would have been better off retreating than fighting, because the cost was more than it was worth for them.


Watch the turn video here! --> https://youtu.be/mDr-GyZKWJk

[Arkham]

Which would be worse, Fortress Palembang or Fortress Bandoeng? In my game with the AI i'm moving all my troops to Bandoeng since its a mountain hex for the defensive penalties, plus has light industry to spit out those yummy supplies.

[BananaConvention]

Which would be worse, Fortress Palembang or Fortress Bandoeng? In my game with the AI i'm moving all my troops to Bandoeng since its a mountain hex for the defensive penalties, plus has light industry to spit out those yummy supplies.

Without Question Fortress Palembang is far more worse. There is a huge risk that the engineers once defeated blow up the industry as they retreat. That’s potentially game over for me if the number oil producing base on the map is decimated when I capture it.

[RangerJoe]

Which would be worse, Fortress Palembang or Fortress Bandoeng? In my game with the AI i'm moving all my troops to Bandoeng since its a mountain hex for the defensive penalties, plus has light industry to spit out those yummy supplies.

In theory, you can do both.

If you withdraw all of the Dutch units on Sumatra plus what you can of the army in Malaysia, that should be able to put up quite a fight.

All of the mobile units on Java move to Bandoeng where they are stockpiling supplies while building forts while they are joined with the 18th UK Division.

Of course, against the AI only Fortress Palembang is enough with the 18th UK Division along with the truly small Dutch armored forces on Java to move against any invasions while the two Aussie units from the 14th Army move to the Balikpappen area to defend those two bases along with the refugees from Tarakan. One part of the 18th UK Division could also hold Kendari with the Australian units at Darwin moving to hold Ambon with the other bird battalion joining them after being pulled out from Rabaul. If you do that, the AI will impale itself on your defenses.

[Q-Ball]

Which would be worse, Fortress Palembang or Fortress Bandoeng? In my game with the AI i'm moving all my troops to Bandoeng since its a mountain hex for the defensive penalties, plus has light industry to spit out those yummy supplies.

Fortress Palembang is FAR worse. Palembang is a must-take spot for the Japanese, and as Jochen points out there is risk of oil destruction when you finally do take it. It's not something that can be bypassed; you have to devote resources to take it immediately.

Fortress Bandoeng is not strategically significant; the light industry will turn off as soon as the Japanese enter the hex, rendering that useless. It can be bypassed and left to rot; there's nothing there the Japanese need. Sure, it will tie down some troops, but the 3x defense cuts both ways; the IJA can leave inferior units there to keep you bottled up.

Allies should NOT move troops to Java for Fortress Bandoeng; it's only purpose is as a last-stand for the Dutch troops on Java, and in that respect it's better than surrender. As a Japanese player, I would love it if the UK 18th division was moved to Bandoeng, as that is probably the least useful thing you can do with that unit. But in the end, the Japanese can just leave it to rot, the troops will run out of supplies, and IJAAF can use it for target practice in meantime

[RangerJoe]

Which would be worse, Fortress Palembang or Fortress Bandoeng? In my game with the AI i'm moving all my troops to Bandoeng since its a mountain hex for the defensive penalties, plus has light industry to spit out those yummy supplies.

Fortress Palembang is FAR worse. Palembang is a must-take spot for the Japanese, and as Jochen points out there is risk of oil destruction when you finally do take it. It's not something that can be bypassed; you have to devote resources to take it immediately.

Fortress Bandoeng is not strategically significant; the light industry will turn off as soon as the Japanese enter the hex, rendering that useless. It can be bypassed and left to rot; there's nothing there the Japanese need. Sure, it will tie down some troops, but the 3x defense cuts both ways; the IJA can leave inferior units there to keep you bottled up.

Allies should NOT move troops to Java for Fortress Bandoeng; it's only purpose is as a last-stand for the Dutch troops on Java, and in that respect it's better than surrender. As a Japanese player, I would love it if the UK 18th division was moved to Bandoeng, as that is probably the least useful thing you can do with that unit. But in the end, the Japanese can just leave it to rot, the troops will run out of supplies, and IJAAF can use it for target practice in meantime

If you read what I wrote you will then notice that I did NOT write to have the 18th UK division move to Bandoeng as part of Fortress Bandoeng, I wrote to have it used for mobile defense along with mobile Dutch forces with possibly 1/3 of the 18th UK division going to Kendari.

[Arkham]

Which would be worse, Fortress Palembang or Fortress Bandoeng? In my game with the AI i'm moving all my troops to Bandoeng since its a mountain hex for the defensive penalties, plus has light industry to spit out those yummy supplies.

Fortress Palembang is FAR worse. Palembang is a must-take spot for the Japanese, and as Jochen points out there is risk of oil destruction when you finally do take it. It's not something that can be bypassed; you have to devote resources to take it immediately.

Fortress Bandoeng is not strategically significant; the light industry will turn off as soon as the Japanese enter the hex, rendering that useless. It can be bypassed and left to rot; there's nothing there the Japanese need. Sure, it will tie down some troops, but the 3x defense cuts both ways; the IJA can leave inferior units there to keep you bottled up.

Allies should NOT move troops to Java for Fortress Bandoeng; it's only purpose is as a last-stand for the Dutch troops on Java, and in that respect it's better than surrender. As a Japanese player, I would love it if the UK 18th division was moved to Bandoeng, as that is probably the least useful thing you can do with that unit. But in the end, the Japanese can just leave it to rot, the troops will run out of supplies, and IJAAF can use it for target practice in meantime

If Fortress Palembang is surrounded on all sides with no room for retreat, will engineers still destroy the oil when they surrender like they might if they retreat?

[BananaConvention]

If Fortress Palembang is surrounded on all sides with no room for retreat, will engineers still destroy the oil when they surrender like they might if they retreat?

It's been explained to me that forcing a surrender of the engineers by cutting off the retreat paths is actually statistically worse for the potential damage to the base than letting them retreat. It's only anecdotal but it's from a source I trust.

[BBfanboy]

Just a guess, but I think part of the calculation is whether the engineers have any supply or not. If they are completely out of supply they should not be able to damage much.

[BananaConvention]

Just a guess, but I think part of the calculation is whether the engineers have any supply or not. If they are completely out of supply they should not be able to damage much.

Sitting in the Palembang hex, I have to assume he's got all the supply he wants. He can run the refinery there in spurts, and that's 1K supply per day.

[BananaConvention]

Yet again we experience another major victory in China, with our powerful forces in Sian launching a massive attack on the troops that are left behind. After their defeat, they retreat across a vital river crossing, dragging thousands of troops and hundreds of tanks along for the ride. We are in hot pursuit all along the vital road to Lanchow.

Watch the video here--> https://youtu.be/wUMuXzcHzW8

[821Bobo]

Leaving those trashed units in Sian was actually smart play. Chinese get destroyed units back at 1/3 strength therefore already thrashed units are best to be left behind to sacrifice as rear guard to slowdown Japanese. It may well be that those WR/MT hexes on left and right bank around Tienshui will be defended with 2k+ AV strength.

[BananaConvention]

Leaving those trashed units in Sian was actually smart play. Chinese get destroyed units back at 1/3 strength therefore already thrashed units are best to be left behind to sacrifice as rear guard to slowdown Japanese. It may well be that those WR/MT hexes on left and right bank around Tienshui will be defended with 2k+ AV strength.

All he’s doing is dragging my units along. None of the units have been destroyed. We have gained a lot of ground pursuing these units.

[BananaConvention]

I have let a situation develop at Noumea to the point where the island of New Caledonia is now sandwiched between Macho's massive sub fleet. We got torpedoes being flung at us left and right and our ships are being put in danger.

Watch the video here--->https://youtu.be/YfWTQVHPQoM

[BananaConvention]

Things at Noumea get even more dangerous after I take a calculated risk to leave Kido Butai formed up in harbor to allow for some ASW work by our pilots. It nearly ends in utter catastrophe.

Watch the video here--->https://youtu.be/c6yaECVbrog

[BananaConvention]

Today was a quick turn with no frills. We will occasionally have these as we start gearing up for the major invasion of Palembang.

Watch the video here--->https://youtu.be/VEFa5FGzL8g

[Q-Ball]

Just a guess, but I think part of the calculation is whether the engineers have any supply or not. If they are completely out of supply they should not be able to damage much.

Sitting in the Palembang hex, I have to assume he's got all the supply he wants. He can run the refinery there in spurts, and that's 1K supply per day.

Don't forget though that industry turns off when there is an enemy unit in the hex.....so if you can get a unit into Palembang, it will turn off supply generation.

He'll probably have a good stockpile though by then, so that's a problem for sure. The Palembang gambit is harder in DDB, which is what I generally played, because in DDB refineries don't make supply

[BananaConvention]

Just a guess, but I think part of the calculation is whether the engineers have any supply or not. If they are completely out of supply they should not be able to damage much.

Sitting in the Palembang hex, I have to assume he's got all the supply he wants. He can run the refinery there in spurts, and that's 1K supply per day.

Don't forget though that industry turns off when there is an enemy unit in the hex.....so if you can get a unit into Palembang, it will turn off supply generation.

He'll probably have a good stockpile though by then, so that's a problem for sure. The Palembang gambit is harder in DDB, which is what I generally played, because in DDB refineries don't make supply

The only thing that shuts down is the resource production (oil/resources) but the refineries will continue to function until they're out of input. I'm sure he can last quite a while in there.

[BananaConvention]

I am feeling more urgency to get into Palembang after a near disaster over Palembang. The bottom line is my bombers have failed to suppress the forts and airfield at Palembang, which means we just can't wait any longer to go in there.

Watch the video here---> https://youtu.be/bpZzYJ-ZYZs