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Great AAR, it took me a couple of days to read this one. I must say that it is the best HOI3 AAR of Japan I ve red so far, congrats ;).



The only thing that I m missing is some more explanation about some of your strategies:


1) Slider balance between technology - officers - diplomacy - ... througout the game. (for example: early game focus on tech, mid game, ... and some numbers to show how it is balanced. Also some motivation about why you did it would be nice)

2) Technology strategy, I m assuming you focus mainly focused on your navy. Your land focus seems to be on infantry (you already had IV infantry pretty early in the game).

3) Composition of your fleets and divisions: What brigades did you use and why? What was your preferred fleet & divison composition and why?

4) Trade: What countries did you trade with and why? Did you trade with the US to improve reations? Or did you trade with the smaller countries?

5) AI controll: did you put anything on AI controll? And how did it perform?

6) I also wonder why you packed your submarines in larger fleets, are they not more effective when split into "1-sub fleets" and put them on convoy hunt so you can use your subs as scouts for your bigger fleets? Or are they too vulnerable for ASW fleets this way?
 
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Operation "S" Status

ezpz7r.jpg

The funny thing about your approach is that historically australian cattle drovers, ... in North Australia went right through the desert of Australia to flee to South Australia. They must have had a funny look on their faces when they saw the Japanese coming from the South :D


With Australia’s north under threat of Japanese invasion in 1942, the government orders the withdrawal of all people and resources – a ‘scorched earth policy’. Delivering his mob of 1,000 prime beef cattle to the meatworks at Wyndham in Western Australia, drover Dan McAlpine (Chips Rafferty) is told to shoot them. He refuses and hatches a plan. He will drive the cattle to safety further south – a 2,600 km journey to Queensland at the wrong time of year across land that few believe can be crossed.
http://aso.gov.au/titles/features/the-overlanders/notes/

I think their scorched earth tactic kinda backfired :rofl:



Also interesting, is that the Japanese historically decided not to invade Australia
As the crowd cleared, the corpse of Private Edward Webster of the Australian 2/2 Anti-Tank Regiment was left in the dust, a gaping wound in his chest. For all the concern in 1942, a Japanese invasion of Australia never took place. Australia was certainly battered and bruised by the events in 1942, fearful, but not in submission. There certainly particular Japanese senior officers from both the army and navy, such as Yamashita and Yamamoto respectively, that entertained thoughts and plans for an invasion of Australia, but the Japanese High Command was against such a course of action, through interception of Japanese diplomatic signals from Magic, US intelligence knew this from mid-April. The Imperial Navy was officially opposed to an invasion of Australia due to the extra demand it would put on shipping, and the army officially opposed an invasion because of the increased manpower demand on the armed forces: the Japanese army had two and a half million men in the field already, mostly in China or against the Soviet army, occupying Australia and securing it against Allied invasion would place an additional burden on Japan's population. The official Japanese strategy for dealing with Australia was to sever lines of supply between Australia and the United States, and the armed forces of Japan went to great lengths to achieve this. The Japanese attempts to cut Australia off from its powerful ally include: trying to take Port Moresby, and numerous operations in the Solomons. Due to the dramatic Japanese expansion into South-East Asia in late 1941, Australians saw these moves as designs upon their homeland. However, the Japanese intended isolation for Australia in 1942, not capture.
http://ww2db.com/country/australia
 
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Answers in yellow in the quote.

Great AAR, it took me a couple of days to read this one. I must say that it is the best HOI3 AAR of Japan I ve red so far, congrats ;).

Thanks! :)

The only thing that I m missing is some more explanation about some of your strategies:


1) Slider balance between technology - officers - diplomacy - ... througout the game. (for example: early game focus on tech, mid game, ... and some numbers to show how it is balanced. Also some motivation about why you did it would be nice)

Basically it's tech heavy all through the game...Outside of the initial motorized troop build, everything that followed was either ships, aircraft, or militia...so as far as officers the slider stayed in the 1.0 to 1.5 area...enough to maintain a comfortable positive flow. Diplomacy was mostly at 0...I conducted little active diplomacy, and for a short pre-war with the US period I had 4 allocated to Diplo to assist in various influences. The key influences were Yunnan and the attempt to hold off the US for awhile - both of which were covered in the AAR. Additional influences were used to help some of the lagging eastern Euro countries into the Axis, and the little covered in the AAR South Americans...where a group of Argentina lead Axis countries were (or are) at war with Brazil and a group of Allied latin america countries. Of course the Allies intervened decisively in the end (darn Americans) but the strategic upshot was yet another drain on US strategic direction. The only reason I didn't cover this somewhat entertaining action was that I didn't really have enough info (and screens to help my memory) to do justice to it. Intelligence I invested more in earlier, during the China phase mostly...after that I reduced it to 1 to maintain some info abroad and my counter-intel.


2) Technology strategy, I m assuming you focus mainly focused on your navy. Your land focus seems to be on infantry (you already had IV infantry pretty early in the game).

I honestly did split the technology 50/50 as much as possible in line with the role played actions. Now since I did not plan on a massive infantry build plan the existing infantry had to be able to get the job done...so obviously those 4 Inf techs were focused on along with specific land doctrines (Large Front, Infantry Warfare, Mass Assault, Operational Command Structures, Operational Level Organization...intermixed with Mobile Warfare, Central Planning, Special Forces, Mechanized Offensive, People's Army, and Guerilla Warfare.)
On the Naval Side the Carrier Ship Techs, Battleship Techs, and Capital Ship Main Armament took immediate precedence until about level 5...level 6 for the Cap Ship Arm. The BB Tosa when laid down was all lvl 5 ('38) with the lvl 6 Main Armament (20.1" rifles)...after that only the Battleship AA tech remained in the queue. I stopped doing Carrier engine first ('40) and took the Hanger and Armor out a couple more techs just because I could. The 9 carriers that I laid down in the 3x3 build order were all lvl 7's. Once again the only thing that I kept in the tech queue afte that was the AA tech. A great deal of naval tech also went into doctrine and bringing the escorts up...along with the investment in Radar/Sonar technology improvements.




3) Composition of your fleets and divisions: What brigades did you use and why? What was your preferred fleet & divison composition and why?

Army divisions I pretty much took as they were...I did group all the Cavalry into same sized all-cav divisions. Likewise there was the "6th Corps" which was a 5 division build of 3 INF + 1 ART. And of course the Motor Corps of 5 divisions of 1 LA + 3 MOT. Otherwise it was all the 3 INF and 4 INF units that come with Japan. I added some Mountain and Marine divisions later, each type being 3 + 1 ENG. Additionally the 8th Corps was made for RP purposes (based on the 2nd Mixed Brigade experience) and these composite divisions were 1 MTN + 1 MAR + 1 INF + 1 ENG (IIRC) - these 5 divisions are being reworked into 2 MTN + 1 MAR + 1 RART.
Naval fleets were more clear cut and followed some roughly "historical" Japanese configurations...the Carrier Striking Fleets (CV/CVL(newer)/CA/CL/DD), Main Battle Fleets (BB/CVL/CA/CL/DD), Assault Fleets (BB(older)/BC/CVL/CA/CL/DD/TT), etc. However as ship casaulties mounted and after the appearance of the American super-stack fleets I had some consolidations going on, but for the most part I've maintained the presence of these types of fleets with some odd ASW (CVL/CL/DD) special purpose taskgroups.


4) Trade: What countries did you trade with and why? Did you trade with the US to improve reations? Or did you trade with the smaller countries?

Trade was/is totally determined by if it is my route responsibility and if I can protect that route. Otherwise I was opportunistic with trading for those resources I needed. By this point the actual "need" for trade is mostly gone and I could consider the diplomatic impact more, but mostly when I'm not starving for something I tend to view trade routes as more of a strategic defense liability.

5) AI controll: did you put anything on AI controll? And how did it perform?

Since I was bounding myself with RP considerations I didn't hand anything off to AI control.

6) I also wonder why you packed your submarines in larger fleets, are they not more effective when split into "1-sub fleets" and put them on convoy hunt so you can use your subs as scouts for your bigger fleets? Or are they too vulnerable for ASW fleets this way?

In this game the IJN submarine arm was basically neglected. No new subs were built, no submarine techs were researched (until 1947/48) and the subs themselves were utilized more in the fashion that they were done so historically by the IJN...they spent far less time hunting convoys than looking for or being directed at enemy taskgroups. However for the most part their range limited their use. So I basically grouped the subs into two sections based on range...the really old lvl 1's and the rest.
 
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The funny thing about your approach is that historically australian cattle drovers, ... in North Australia went right through the desert of Australia to flee to South Australia. They must have had a funny look on their faces when they saw the Japanese coming from the South :D

Also interesting, is that the Japanese historically decided not to invade Australia

I imagine they would've been pretty shocked :)

Of course this particular invasion was based on the overall strategic conditions...I had totally ignored the Australia and New Zealand question until India was resolved. Once India was done - then I had to think about how I was going to push through the Pacific, which basically meant in my mind that they would have to be "eaten" before I progressed any further east in the island chains. Both land masses had lots of open maneuver room and supporting capability for American reinforcements...and I was getting reports that the Americans had plenty of troops to reinforce with. So instead of assuming that I could keep an effective blockade against American transports, I opted to simply remove the territory from Allied control and invite them to take the beaches and ports at amphibious penalty instead.

The actual "Operation S" landings themselves were entirely predicated on the Surabaya staging base and the infrastructure configuration of Australia. The AI had placed the American paratroops at Darwin and those north ports (including Darwin) were effectively isolated from the southern "meat" of Oz...once I got into south-west Oz those Americans were hors d' combat until they were able to fly them down. For whatever reasons the Aussie troops were either out of position or simply overwhelmed/outclassed-teched-experienced by the Japanese troops landed...they also lacked any effective air cover allowing the Fighter-Bombers and Tacs to chew them up in place.
 
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Battle of Kossol Passage - 12th to 13th February, 1946

The Americans were ready to try another of their "deep" amphibious attacks in February, once again at Palau. The carriers of CSF 1 decimated the attackers within the Kossol Passage without the ships breaking their cruising speed.

2ui7m2p.jpg
 
So how close are the allies/US to just giving up? Has germany done much to prepare for an american invasion? Or do you think the AI and yourself will just go on the defensive?

Do you plan to take at least Hawaii?
 
So how close are the allies/US to just giving up? Has germany done much to prepare for an american invasion? Or do you think the AI and yourself will just go on the defensive?

Do you plan to take at least Hawaii?

I've got up to 1948 in the can and Germany has shown little movement to invading the US, so I guess I'll have to do it :)
 
Battle of Ngemlis Islands - 10th to 12th August, 1946

With fanatical persistence the reformed US Pacific Fleet launches another attack on the Palau group. They are met by CSF 1 and 2 which included several brand new carriers.

The Americans were alerted to the IJN presence by the destruction of both their picket destroyer and an amphibious assault group by the IJN battleships in the early morning hours. In an attempt to disrupt the Japanese advance the Americans charged with a cruiser squadron at about same time they expected a combined air strike from their formidable carrier force on CSF 1 & 2.

Before this American air hammer landed the Japanese strike fleets had totally destroyed an escort carrier group that had been located to the north. The new carrier Zuikaku was late in recovering and launching her airgroup for the soon to be sent massed strike on the American forces, and when the US bombers found her she was still in the middle of turning over her aircraft. Several bombs wrecked the Zuikaku, including an American divebomber which simply plowed into her midships elevator at full speed, the pilot likely having been killed or wounded in his dive. The brand new carrier was afire from bow to stern as the destroyer Yuduki, herself damaged in the American attack, came alongside to rescue crew when a secondary explosion occurred aboard the carrier, blasting out the hull immediately opposite the destroyer, the Yuduki immediately began rolling to starboard until her mast and superstructure were actually going into the gaping wound in the Zuikaku's side. This held the Yuduki above water for only a short time as the carrier itself was taking in great amounts of water from the keel shattering hole, the Zuikaku itself began rolling to port as it settled, pushing the Yuduki under herself. The loss of life aboard the Yuduki was total, and three quarters of the Zuikaku crew were lost as well.

The remaining Zuikaku airgroup was easily taken in across the Japanese carriers, and their counter strike either sunk ordamaged a great number of the American ships present, including the carrier Crown Point. The real victory at this point was the air supremacy gained, as many American pilots found their home carriers flight decks inhospitable, those carriers with good decks were desperately trying to land all the aircraft, those that had any serious damage were simply pushed over the side to make room for the next. The air groups were in utter chaos and offered only token resistance to the second major IJN air strike just before dark which sank the Valley Forge and the bulk of the rest of the American armada.

The decision to abandon the amphibious operation had already been a forgone conclusion, however Admiral Nimitz decided to sacrifice a portion of his remaining fleet as decoys to allow the remaining fleet carrier and troop transports a better chance of escape. This decoy group was found and destroyed the next day, however unknown to Admiral Nimitz, the Japanese themselves were wary enough after the loss of the Zuikaku and the near loss of the venerable Akagi, whose crew had just barely saved her from sinking and had to spend a nerve wrecking week being towed back to Yokosuka for repairs.

b5m9as.jpg
 
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Bad luck losing the Zuikaku, but it was an unequal exchange for the US, even with their immense manufacturing superiority.

How long does it take you to build a carrier at the moment?
 
Bad luck losing the Zuikaku, but it was an unequal exchange for the US, even with their immense manufacturing superiority.

How long does it take you to build a carrier at the moment?

19 months

The Akagi got out of the fight with like 1 STR left or something like that...so it was a close run deal for them or it would have been 2 CV's lost.
 
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Admiralty Island Landings - September 13th, 1946

Coincidentally on the same day as the utter failure of the Americans at Ngeaur Island, the IJN was putting their NLF Corps ashore at the troublesome Allied outpost on Manus. Even with round the clock bombing of the Negros port facility the Americans were still getting supplies through to maintain the defensive effort, at great cost when fleets were not in port for repairs or called away for other American ASW or amphibious threats.

2niv4ti.jpg


Begun with initially promising results, the attack was again recalled since as previously had happened it was the inability to maintain the afloat forces supporting the NLF amphibious attack that brought this attack to also shamefully fail the Emperor. Back at IGHQ the continued failure to crush this troublesome Allied garrison could no longer be hidden due to the number of NLF casualties. Army officers were beginning to question if the Navy could actually run ground operations, since the NLF troops seemed to have had no problem taking their objectives when "properly utilized" under Army command in Australia. The Naval officers eventually quipped back if the NLF troops had been equally "properly utilized" in the first Indian campaign, which opened up the old argument about the blame for that great fiasco.
 
Heya, I read your AAR from start to finish (last update) today and this was all pretty epic! Very nice maps and all. A bit sad by the loss of the army-navy rivality mid aar, found it very interesting and beleivable. Would be great if it were to return for the grand finale: Invasion of USA. :D