Influence Wars - Japan 1936 HPP Interactive AAR - GAMEPLAY THREAD

Cybvep said:

What is the status of the ships already in the repair yards?

Click to expand...

Still undergoing repairs, but all capital ships besides IJN Yamato (~70%) are at around 83-93% readiness levels.

Click to expand...

We do need detailed reports so we can judge what we can do. Numbers, clerk, I need numbers. Right now!

Quickly? None. They would have to brought from China. However, we already have 3 H-FTRs and 2 L-FTRs stationed on Guam. Guam is also the only island with an airbase close enough to reach Saipan.

Click to expand...

What is their status? Have they participated in the battle already?

They are relatively close by, patrolling the area between Japan and the Philippines. Currently there are 2 patrol groups (1xCL+3xDD) - new ones weren't formed because of disagreements among the senior officers of the Navy, so most of our destroyers and several cruisers are docked at Tokyo's port.

Click to expand...

Mind you that there was no disagreement about forming the ASW groups, the disagreement was about their usage, on which we actually did agree later on. Form them right now and have them move towards to Saipan to escort our damaged vessels back home.

Submarines have been rebased to Truk and started patrolling areas around the Wake Island. This was not included in the report, as it was not directly connected with the battle of Saipan. A more detailed standard report will come in time, dealing with China, the Philippines, our economy etc.

Click to expand...

Change their orders accordingly. Two groups of three flotillas each are to attack the US fleets at Saipan. They are meant to occupy the enemy, not to sink the fleet on their own, remind their commanders to that. They are meant to retreat when suffering medium damage.

The battle was very chaotic and at times the enemy's numbers worked against him. However, we do not posses detailed reports concerning the issue. The information provided in the emergency report is all we have at our disposal.

Click to expand...

I imagine that there'll be some court martials within the US navy once this is over... If the captains of these ships manage to survive.

Considering that the US bombers stopped bombing Saipan, the Administration believes that the enemy's CAGs are depleted. As far as we know, most of the remaining enemy capital ships are definitely operational, but some of them are damaged.

Click to expand...

Good news indeed. Still, have the planes from Guam attack the US fleet once, just to see what is left out there. They can also provide recon about the US fleet and the status of their ships. Currently, we do need information above all else. Make sure to remind the pilots to this!

To the Imperial Navy and the garrison of Saipan

Comrades, brothers in arms. In the last days, our fleets have engaged the enemy while he tried to set foot upon our sacred soil. While we did suffer losses as well, the enemy suffered far more. On top of that, many of their means of transportation were sunk, meaning that whatever men and equipment they had on them to support the invasion are gone. Our fleets are returning for port, bloodied but not beaten. We will return shortly and deliver the crushing blow which will end the US invasion of Saipan.
Men on Saipan, take heart and remember that help is coming. The navy will not let you down. Fight on in the knowledge that help is on the way, that the Americans will be driven into the sea.

We have these battleworthy ships available:

4 BBs
2 CV
2 CVL
6 CA
10 CL
26 DD

This means that we can form up two distinct battlefleets with two BBs, three CAs and 3-4 CL each. On top of that, we can field two small Carrier fleets with one CV, once CVL and a number of escorts. Since the CAGs are severely weakened, we need the fighters on Guam to take care about the US CAGs before we engage in combat.

If the submarines can be sent in prior to the surface fleets, that'd be another bonus for us. We would need to recall them before the main engagement, but they could possibly damage some more ships and at the very least they would keep the US ships busy while we assemble the retaliation force.

Opinions?

Adm. Yammamoto: IJN Akagi

The defence of Guam was a strategic success. Stop. We eliminated 4 Battleships, 1 Carrier, 1 Heavy Cruiser, 1 Light Cruiser, 6 Destroyers and 10 Troopships at a cost of 3 Battlecruisers and 3 Heavy Cruisers. Stop. This suggests that we have eliminated the bulk of their old fleet assets, or those that were damaged during our attack on Guam. Stop. It also suggests to us that their Cruisers are particularly up-to-date with respect to their other ships. Stop.

We should capitalise on this success by reforming the fleets from undamaged assets and return to do battle so that US ships damaged in the last exchange can be sunk. Stop.

Going through the battle and repair reports we have the following ships to reform the fleets from;

Yamashiro BB
Hosho CVL
Mogami CA
Mikuna CA
Haruro CA
Tama CL

Ise BB
Hyuga BB
Myoko CA
Kuna CL

Akagi CV
Zuiho CVL
Kinu CL
Abukuma CL

Tatsuta CL


Soryu CV
Mutsu BB
Ashigara CA
Atago CA
Natori CL
Nagara CL

4 Battleships, 2 Carriers, 2 Light Carriers, 6 Heavy Cruisers, 7 Light Cruisers, and assorted destroyers. Stop. It is apparent that the USN focused on destroying the majority of, if not all of our Battlecrusier fleets, either than, or they simply were not up to the job. Battlecrusiers should not be considered as a weapon of the IJN in the future. Stop.

We only have two operational CAG groups at the moment. Stop. This means that I must deliver the ultimatum to the Army that the request for additional CAG forces take precedence completely, since with only just over half our naval assets operational we cannot win the Battle of the Pacific. Stop.

Not only following the Industrial factory completion must we use the IC to build one of the CAG wings, I am additionally requesting another CAG win be put into production alongside the one already in the list. Stop. This means 3 CAG wings in the production queue, not including the 8th CAG wing. Stop. This is a reasonable request given our current situation. Stop.

This will bring us up to optimal naval air cover in the shortest amount of time. Stop. Approximately 4 months. Stop.


For the immediate future a relief mission would require the navy be reorganised;

Battlefleet 1
Ise BB
Hyuga BB
Myoko CA
Ashigara CA
Atago CA
Kuna CL
Natori CL
Nagara CL

Battlefleet 2
Yamashiro BB
Mutsu BB
Mogami CA
Mikuna CA
Haruro CA
Tama CL
Kinu CL
Abukuma CL

Support Carrier Fleet
Akagi CV (1 CAG) (if there is another CAG going stick it here, but I can't appear to find the 3rd operational one)
Soryu CV (1 CAG)
Tatsuta CL
+ 4 Modern Destroyers (We don't have the stats on this so use your best judgement)


Since we lack a strong naval air presence we shall have to reserve our torpedo bomber CAGs solely for naval actions, and call on 3 heavy fighter wings, and 2 interceptor wings to fly air superiority missions over the target area to protect our ships from enemy carrier fighters. Stop. This should be enough to give us a 2:1 fighter ratio on whatever the Americans have in the region, and given their specific missions, and lack of American air resource in attacking Saipan it is likely the Americans are already depleted in number. Stop.

I believe if we can commence the reorganising in time we can have not just a good attempt at liberating Saipan, we could beat back the US fleet, and inflict even more losses upon them. Stop.

If we are successful at this we shall have made great headway in winning the Battle of the Pacific. Stop. Reducing the Americans by I guess 25-30% of their operational fleets. Stop. However it will have hit us rather similarly with the loss of our Battlecruiser assets. Stop. Still we have the strategic initiative given the loss of 10 of the USN troopships, several thousand of Americans are swimming with the fishes, and even if they were able to land on Saipan or elsewhere, we have taken out probably about half the American transport logistics fleet. Stop. This will make it incredibly difficult for them to attack any of our other Pacific assets in the meantime. Stop.

Still it would be prudent to strongly consider coastal fortification on our main pacific bases with airbase capacity;

Saipan
Guam
Enietok(sp?)
Kwajalien
(any other island port/airbase locales)

Giving these islands divisions of engineers to place landmine and dig entrenchments would be better than artillery divisions in this admirals opinion. Stop.


I concur with Admirals Baltersar that detailed numbers are required, and that the fleets should be reorganised for a relief mission. Stop. I would welcome his thoughts on my appraisal of how to reorganised. Stop.

I'd advice striking too, just leave the CV's out as they have no operational CAGS.
The army should fly ALL fighters to Saipan and support the operations.

Adm. Yamamoto: IJN Akagi

Our large carriers are better at basing aircraft from. Stop. Even if we can't fill them to full capacity the larger flight decks, heavier hulls and more air armaments shall be of better use when we are restricted. Stop. My suggested fleet set ups contain all near full strenght ships. Stop. These will be going up against already damaged ships from the last engagement, so hopefully we shall be senting battle ready fleets against battle damaged American ones who are at the disadvantage of dealing with the invasion. Stop. It is likely that we shall take more damage, and possibly the loss of a ship or two, but we can do some heavy damage again in the process. Stop.

My rationale in aircraft production is to allow a tactical reserve since the suprise delaration of war, and rapid deployment has taxed our exsiting CAG reserves. They need to be bolstered to full operational capacity. Stop. Otherwise half our fleet shall be sat at port waiting for aircraft, and the rest awaiting repair of their hulls after an enagement....Stop

Cybvep said:

This is madness - you are wilfully sending semi-operational carriers against an enemy which is somewhat damaged but not destroyed. This can easily end in a disaster.

Click to expand...

Fair to say Akagi is undamaged (except for some paint job) but no CAG is operational over 75% and all are at zero organisation. Hence we must get air support from land bases.

On the overview there are no CAG over 50% and all have zero Org, I wouldn't call that "Not in perfect condition"

I fully agree with Adm Yamamotos plan. The ships considered operational are:

Battleships: 4
IJN Yamashiro (92% ready)
IJN Mutsu (90% ready)
IJN Ise (undamaged)
IJN Hyuga (98% ready)

Heavy cruisers: 6 (all undamaged)
IJN Mogami
IJN Mikuma
IJN Haguro
IJN Myoko
IJN Atago
IJN Ashigara

Light Cruisers: 10 (all undamaged)
IJN Kinu
IJN Jintsu
IJN Tama
IJN Abukuma
IJN Hirado
IJN Natori
IJN Kuma
IJN Nagara
IJN Kumano
IJN Tenryu

Fleet carriers: 2
IJN Soryu (94% ready)
IJN Akagi (undamaged

Light Carriers: 2 (both undamaged)
IJN Zuiho
IJN Hosho

Destroyers: 26 (all undamaged)
1. to 26. Kuchikusentai.

As you see, we do have quite a number of ships left. I agree with the fleets proposed by Adm Yamamoto. What other ships we have will be employed escorting our damaged vessels to safety. It is important that we get these ships back, since repairing them is a lot easier than building them from scratch.

On top of what my fellow Admiral suggest, I would like to add that the first fleet with the undamaged battleships should engage before the second fleet meets the enemy. However, I think that the light fighters from Guam should suffice for air supremacy and the heavy fighters should engage in anti-ship roles. If we are lucky, they'll damage or even sink some of the US light vessels but at the very least they'll give them more targets to shoot at.

On top of that, I request the release of one marine division from the Philippines as relief force for Saipan. The harbor is not under attack currently, so our transports should be able to sneak in and out without being noticed.

I also repeat myself regarding the subs. We should use them in this battle. At the very least, we should position them in the likely retreat zones of the enemy.

As far as we know, the US have fleet carriers USS Saratoga and USS Enterprise commited to this battle. Together with the already sunk USS Lexington, these three ships formed the entire US carrier fleet five years ago. If we manage to sink these, they'll be very short on fleet carriers for years to come.

Likewise, they still have several battleships commited to the operation, though which exactly seems unknown right now. Intelligence reported USS Arizona, USS Oklahoma, USS Tennessee, USS California, USS West Virginia and USS Maryland being present at the battle. However, of these ships, only USS Oklahoma has been confirmed being sunk. On the other hand, USS Colorado, USS Nevada and USS Pennsylvania have been sunk, too. This implies to me that the US have rotated out damaged ships at one point or the other, meaning that we didn't face six USN battleships but at least nine of them. This in itself will affect their operations for some weeks, too, as their ships will need repairs as well. It also means that we are less likely to face a similar wall of battleships in a second engagement, because the US seem reluctant to commit ships not 100% operational.

Once this battle is over, we should debrief the battle as detailed as we can. Also, we need to re-consider what we need to produce. Obviously, CAGs will be high on the priority list.

The Administration also wants to note that if Saipan is to be reinforced by additional troops, our transport fleet will need to be escorted, as US submarines are patrolling the area. Some escorts will also be required for transport fleets that will transfer 2 Homegun from the Philippines to China.

Click to expand...

We have 26 destroyer groups at our disposal plus one damaged and currently under repair, only a fraction of these is involved in main fleet operations. Surely the administration will find sufficient escorts for the transports.

The Administration believes that the USA has more than 3 fleet carriers. It can be misleading to base our presumptions on outdated reports from 1936.

Click to expand...

I think so too, I merely wanted to emphazise that these ships were the core of the carrier fleet program only a few years ago. Whatever else they planned, they'll be short on sea based air support. At least three carriers shorter than now.

The Administration also wants to emphasise the fact that CAGs are already high on our priority list.

Click to expand...

Obviously, this priorty list needs to be reworked as soon as possible. This means immediately after the battle of Saipan has been concluded.