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Because of a Jap unit gone for a tour in the North the Soviets have gone active in mid Jan '42.

I'm playing a PBEM. General Billy PLEASE do not read this.

Now I need advice, I never played with or against the Soviets.

What am I supposed to do: attack? Defend? Move in reinforcements? From where?

Consider that I've initiated a VERY Pacific centric strategy. I've already taken New Guinea, Solomons, Guadalcanal, Nanoumea, Baker, New Hebrides and Lunga and Fiji are going to be invaded in a couple of turns.
Birmania has been taken care of already.

However, with the exception of North Borneo, Davao Island, Northern PI and Amboina all the rest (singapore included) is still in enemy hands.

Hence I don't have many units available, actually I basically have none.
China is still in a heavy fight. Yenen, Changsha, Henchow and Wuhan have fallen, but Honan and Kungchan are holding very well.

What can i do?

Thanks

ORIGINAL: mc3744

Because of a Jap unit gone for a tour in the North the Soviets have gone active in mid Jan '42.

I'm playing a PBEM. General Billy PLEASE do not read this.


ughh General Billy close your eyes your too honest to read this



Now I need advice, I never played with or against the Soviets.

What am I supposed to do: attack? Defend? Move in reinforcements? From where?

Consider that I've initiated a VERY Pacific centric strategy. I've already taken New Guinea, Solomons, Guadalcanal, Nanoumea, Baker, New Hebrides and Lunga and Fiji are going to be invaded in a couple of turns.
Birmania has been taken care of already.

However, with the exception of North Borneo, Davao Island, Northern PI and Amboina all the rest (singapore included) is still in enemy hands.

Hence I don't have many units available, actually I basically have none.
China is still in a heavy fight. Yenen, Changsha, Henchow and Wuhan have fallen, but Honan and Kungchan are holding very well.

What can i do?

Thanks

I would recommend you contact your opponent and ask to go back to a previous save before activation. (I assume it was a movement error and not due to letting the garrison fall.

If you have to fight you are really in trouble. The at start Japanese forces in Russia are not enough to win. Russian air is tough and can bomb your resourses in Russia and Japan.

Here's what I recommend. Initially assume a defensive posture. Do not go into any Russian city as his artillery is very strong. If he wants to attack though you should be stong enough to hold in your cities.

Get the Chinese back on their heals and then shift everything you can to russia. I think you will need at least an extra 12!!! divisions to have a chance. A few southern area divisions and a bunch of Chinese divisions. Mass them all at one point with every eng unit you have. Hit either in the center at "B" or at Vladavostock. With a bunch of your Kwantang army divisions you want a stack of 16 to 20 divisions for the main attack.

Once at your objective Shock attack repeatedly regardless of losses. Shock/bombard/Shock etc.

I still don't think its a sure thing but you may break through. Once you defeat the first russian stack you can continue and will probably eventually defeat Russia in 2 or 3 months if you take "B". If you attack at Vladavostock it will take much longer as the Russian can retreat north. If you fail to defeat the Russian in your objective city its pretty much game over for you.

Even in victory you have probably lost the war. The Chinese get 4 or 5 months to recover even if you defeat Russia. They may even be able to go over to the offensive during the time it takes to fight the Russian campaign.

The other option is to just stay on the defensive. Even if the ground situation remains stable you'll be losing a 100 or so pilots a month for the rest of the war and haveing your industry bombed on a continuing basis.

(* grabs pop-corn *)

Sorry can't help. Frankly, if I were in your postion, I'd be screaming too. But also think this could be an interesting situation. There are so many folks who bang the drum of the uber-ness of the IJA, "Oh they can take on China -and- the Soviets!" They just didn't feel like it historically! It's a good thing for Stalin they didn't think he was worth the effort!".

Guess what. Now you're in Japan's worst nightmare.

You've pissed off USA, UK, China, -and- Russia.

You're about to demonstrate (the hard way) why Japan never even thought about attacking the Soviets in WW2.

This should be interesting.

My advice. Role-play it.

I'll bet you're screwed. But hey, you're can say you were the first to fight the Russian and the Chinese legitimately (not simply massing 20 Divs and sweeping thru everything piecemail).

As the man says, "Good luck with that."
-F-

Well...........I recall a hogans hero where Sgt Schultz comes in an they
are all learning russian........ He thinks for a moment.........then joins the class. Da, Comrade I nyet Nuthing

ok, you've scared me enough now! [:(]

I guess I'll ask Bill for a truce in Russia. If the game goes down the drain so early I'll loose the fun of it.

when this happened we went back several turns and replayed rather than attempt to fudge something...

ORIGINAL: freeboy

when this happened we went back several turns and replayed rather than attempt to fudge something...

I'd hate to loose all this time.
If he agrees we can simply freeze as we are. It would actually be as in reality: we agree not to fight [:)]
I checked a bit better the map and I think I don't stand a chance, not now anyway. If China was subjugated, maybe, but now? No way.

grr.... message got lost!

ORIGINAL: mc3744

ORIGINAL: freeboy

when this happened we went back several turns and replayed rather than attempt to fudge something...

I'd hate to loose all this time.
If he agrees we can simply freeze as we are. It would actually be as in reality: we agree not to fight [:)]
I checked a bit better the map and I think I don't stand a chance, not now anyway. If China was subjugated, maybe, but now? No way.

I'm thinking to activate voluntary the Soviets in my Japanese PBEM. Then both players will agree not to attack each other (Japan still keeping 8500+ AS in Kwantung Army, of course) until Japan invades Russia but at least Russia can prepare for war (move and train troops, build forts, move air units and so on).

Right now I will not invade Russia in my current PBEM as I found very gamey the fact that Soviet can prepare at all. Next PBEM I will activate Russia on turn 1, even before deciding if I will go there or not.

ORIGINAL: mc3744

I checked a bit better the map and I think I don't stand a chance, not now anyway. If China was subjugated, maybe, but now? No way.

Disagree entirely. Japan defensive position is far better than Soviet one. You can wait for one month and hold to retire some divisions from N China. Chinese have no engineers so will have a rough time taking back cities.

You have some good fotifications on Soviet border (on the Japanese side), better than on the Soviet side. And you often are defending mountain hexes so attacking them will be harder.

The only place you may have trouble is a Soviet thrust at once from Iman towards Harbin. Also in the north Hailar may fall quickly.

Also invading N Russia with the Mongolian Cav Div is a bad idea. I was able to stop them with one division and I am now driving them back with two.

Stay in defence once your Chinese position is secure (all front cities with fort level 3 or more) and then try to crush Russia before finishing China. You have to hold the border W of Vladisvostok, Tsilihar and Harbin. All areas N and E are battlegrounds.

Oh and by the way land in Okha and enjoy the free oil.

It could be a good idea to send the ENG units in Japan to Mandchoukuo and China to build fort fast. That will free faster troops for offensive operations.

To crystallize some of the other responses:

Do you and your opponent *want* to fight a land war in Russia? If not, no-one's forcing you to! Just come to some rational agreement, e.g., Japan continues to maintain the garrison, no further border crossings on either side(except to repatriate the wayward cav unit), air in the area stands down; and go on with life.

Responce to Admiral Laurant:

The problem is the Russians will have a number of advantages in his game as opposed to our game.

1.) Russia has at least 3 and probably 4 weeks to redeploy prior to being invaded.

2.) The Japanese southern area divisions are already commited which means more of his attacking force will have to come from China.

3.) His offensive will occur in mid Feb at the earliest which means that Russia will have had an extra month and a half to dig in.

So he will not be able to crush the Russian so easily. Not that Japan will be quickly crushed either but I see no way that Russia will be defeated in a short campaign under these conditions.

I see the best case being something like defeating Russia in June or so and then resumming the Chinese offensive in July from basically the starting position. ( I assume China will retake some cities while 8 or 9 Jap divisions are in Russia.) They will face a Chinese Army flush with supplies and more experienced than at game start. The allied air forces will now match up against the zero's better and may even have air superiority. China will not be so easy to defeat even with the forces from Russia.

I kicked the Russian Bear in the butt in a previous PBEM under version 1.3 just because we were going to do a restart anyway. The first thing you will find is your aircraft are no match for the Russkie`s, your LCU`s are no match for the Russkie`s, you will be overwelmed in very short order. To recap you are toast, which I have to wonder is historical, given that the Russians were so preoccupied with Germany. Oh well maybe your PBEM opponent will let you off the hook.[:D]

Sorry I didn't have time to reply earlier.

We have agreed to a truce. I keep the Manchuko garrison 'as if' and nobody attacks nobody.
The main difference being that he can now redeploy and arrange his defense should I ever decide to attack.

Thanks for the suggestions anyway, it's still an open option.