Influence Wars - Japan 1936 HPP Interactive AAR - GAMEPLAY THREAD

Our first decision is do we defend the border against the Soviets?
It is my clear opinion that if we leave the border empty there will be border incidents where the Soviets will test our will to defend us selves and our subjects.

The strength of the Enemy has ebbs and tides, but seems to be around 1 division per bordering province on average, with a mix of unit types and support. Which means we can't do with significant less or we risk provoking an attack, so we need around 28 divisions here. The Manchurian troops are too unstable to be counted in this and moves around as if it was random.

Also the main land region boast 6 harbours requiring an additional 6 Garrison divisions.


Forces present in the theatre in total
42 Infantry Brigades - 51
18 Artillery Regiments - 12
22 Armoured Car Squadrons - 12
8 Engineer Companies - 3
18 Garrisons - 18
2 Infantry Tanks - 2
1 Light Armour - 1
1 Motorised - 1
13 Cavalry Squadrons - 13

To be build
6 AT - 6

Taken from other places.
4 Mot - 4

Where not mentioned otherwise
Gar - 2 x gar (potential reinforcement art later)
Cav - 2 x cav + AC
InfA - 2 x inf + art
InfT - 2 x inf + later AT
InfE - 3 x inf + Eng

Defensive deployment:

Chosen Gun (Korea)
4 Garx2 for harbours
1 Garx2+art for Soviet border

20 Homengun, just north of the border the facing the Vladivostok Front, with from the south up along the border up to the lake.
Gar,
19, 20 Hoheishidan (our only 5 brigade units 4xInf + AC/Art, which we shouldn't split)
InfT, InfA

6 Homengun, just North of the lake to the river Sungari
InfA, InfT, InfA, InfE, InfT

5 Homengun, from the river to before Mt. Huma.
4 x Cav
1 Gar in Harbin to keep the Manchurians in line and prevent air dropped troops from taking it.

4 Homengun, from Mt. Huma to Gen He
3 InfA + 2 InfT


Moukogo Gun, from Qagan to Qagan Qulut - 3 divisions
2 InfE - for the 2 extremely endangered provinces.
2 Cav,
2 InfA, InfT


3 Homengun, empty to join Kita-Shina Ichigun for filling up.

Dalian
Gar + art - We don't want to lose this as our forefathers lost so much blood over.

Jinxi
Gar - the Manchurians don't value harbours so we must defend it for them.


Offensive deployment.

Kita-Shina ichigun Chinese defence force.

The Divine wind corps (Kamikaza) mobile units with support IST.
1 x 1xL.Arm 1xmot 1xcav 1xAC - CA bonus
2 x 2 x mot 1xAC, later to be reinforced with L.Arm. (made from Tokyo mot and Taiwan mot, Tokyo to get replacement Inf combined with the surplus Art). Later CA bonus.
2 x 2xinf 1xist 1xAC - with 2 AC armour upgrades this gives CA bonus.


Production needs
Now we already are missing 9 infantry brigades.
Two more that need to replace the Tokyo Imperial Guard.
Then we need 70 divisions more for China given that we already got the Divine Wind Corps.
So we need to build 160 infantry brigades.

We got the following surplus support units
6 Art
10 AC
5 Eng
which can be distributed among the units.


Clearly there is a major gab in our expectations since you only think 36 infantry brigades are missing.

This is only for a defensive deployment against the Soviets and starting hostility with the Chinese, offensive operations in any of the 7 other directions is not included though a total defeat of China would free up units for a foundation of these needs.
In the needs Mnt or Mar can substitute nearly any of the infantry.

General Surt
Mt. Huma


Btw. It freezes a lot up here as it does in the Chinese mountains, we should make Arctic Warfare Equipment a priority to lessen attrition and improve our moral.


Edit: The IST would need more to get to CA, slight miscalculation.

Dear General,

Indeed my estimate appears low since it only refers to the West Asian Fronts in the respect, while not making mention about the needs to keep the peace across Manchuria. Which is why I cabled a rough intelligence report on the Soviet forces in the region for your perusal. You may have a more detailed one yourself, however that was not for me to know.

It is with that in mind that I thought you may be able to pass your thoughts on what may be needed along that front.


In your memorandum it does appear incredibly odd though to garrison the bulk of our armed forces to picket the Soviet border, essentially sitting there doing nothing but freezing their feet off, as I may presume you might be doing right now.

The Soviets might be a threat, but to take 6 of our 7 armies to that border, when the Chinese have blatantly been belligerent to us with a trade embargo and are already geared up for war seams like folly! The soviets are in the midst of purging their officer corps and repressing home dissenters they cannot hope to organise action at such a time.

Many hundreds of the Emperors soldiers will die from attrition even with cold weather gear and the best of provisions simply achieving nothing. This will be bad for morale, and in general weaken the resolve of the armed forces capacity for decisive action.


However I do not promote stripping the border completely bare, Militia units and be quickly recruited, and while poor (if not abysmal) when it comes for getting anything done, sure do make a cheap show of force enough to insure the Soviets think twice about invasion. Furthermore they can be recruited in massive number.

Having said that, should any skirmishing erupt, this is why we need the duel concept army. A couple of divisions of 'hard hitters' will be able to strike the enemy hard in any skirmish showing who is at least tactically dominant, enough to deter any other attacks for the time being.

Later we may very well use such a historic aggressive actions against us as another legitimacy as to why aggression against the Bolsheviks is justified, even if we happened to have come off the victor then.



This is in many ways the best course of long term strategy. The IJN sees our struggle against the colonial powers in that theatre, but ships and planes need fuel oil.

Manchuria has that fuel oil.

China (and Guangxi) has the manpower and industry needed to support a decisive war against the Soviets, and improve Japan’s international status.


Therefore swift victory in China, gives us swift victory against the Soviets in Outer Manchuria and Siberia, which allows the Navy to finalise the Great Asian reunification by expelling non-asians from Asia and building Japan into the world power she is destined to be!

It may be a long struggle, but it will only be made longer and harder by dithering caution, by coming together and focusing our assets on each objective in turn we gain southern territories, northern territories and then build The world class navy to fend off anybody else’s claim to the Empire of the Rising Sun!



I believe that General Comm Cody and myself may see eye to eye on this score of one bite at a time, after all after the first bite a larger, then larger one can be made.

[Not GP related, but fluffy]
Another point on militia, in terms of building a greater Asian unity, in a time of war against China, releasing propaganda for Chinese militia units to turncoat and fight for our Empire might be a great way to ease pacification of conquered territories. This way weapons would not return to the fields, military minded men will see us more favourably if we are offering them a position to guard and fight for their China.

This way local officials of power can stay in power, just under our auspices from Tokyo and will feel far more empowered and less likely to rebel once they see that we have ended the civil war on real terms and brought strength and stability to the region.

Furthermore many of these militia will already know the local areas and dialects making them the perfect garrisons and police force for when our elite armies move to other fronts, thus we can rest assured that our new Chinese territories will stay well defended at all times.

Imperial Generals,

The use of Militia is an utter failure of the Chinese, they are no good for anything except creating casualties for us, they can't be used to police anything nor hold anything, we should keep away from this Chinese way of fighting. Militia can't do anything Gar and MP can't do much better, you might argue they are cheaper, but the the minimal use they provide is far less.

Now the reason for the large amount of troops is to get a 1:1 parity with the Soviets using General Yamamoto's figures, which are not far from the truth according to my estimates of the border garrison. Of course we can't guess on any in land deployment, but we might get the fleet to sail a sub up along the coast to spy on any troop concentrations they might detect.

Would anyone suggest a different ration of force to the Soviet buildup? The chance of Soviet aggression is directly linked to their perceived chance of winning. I would not consider it wise to leave them too much of a temptation but if someone want to apologize to the emperor for losing the border provinces by stripping the border down to some militia.

That said, the above border defensive deployment plan is not the final truth, but I can't endorse a plan that strips the border bare.

Now I wont propose serial builds as they wont be upgraded and doesn't give any discount, but repeat build when units finish is a must.

Before we go to build plans we must also decide how to use the Garrisons, there are a lot of undefended ports around which should all be covered before any hostility breaks out.
Any port in mainland Japan, ie. where you can walk to from Tokyo, should have 3xGar+Art.
Any port on the Asian mainland should have 2xGar, including incompetent puppets ports.
Any other pacific size 1 port should have 1xGar
Any other pacific port should get 2xGar
Any size 10 port should get 3xGar+art, that should be Truk and Kaohsiung on Taiwan.

If we can get a count of the needed Garrison brigades and art from the Armaments minister we can make a more detailed plan.

Lets therefore go to a proposal for unit builds for the 2nd half of '36 in priority.
repeat build of IC for 30 IC (when the first are finished) needs Navy consent. We need to keep the practical high.
repeat build of 2xGar with art if needed until the above need is fulfilled.
when that is done 6 repeat build 1xAT as protection against enemy tanks.
repeat build of as many 2xinf as the budget allows in parallel.
all as reserve.


Research in priority if more possibilities oldest first, no ahead of time research.
Any secret stuff, that would be proximity fuse in '42 if we keep to our plan.
3 teams on production, efficiency, supplies, education, then all other on the industry ledger except Combat Radios which are army only, radio detection not before radar is invented. Resources as least priority. (Needs Navy consent)
one researcher on the 4 basic infantry techs.
one on Mnt, Arctic and engineer techs.
if any of these 2 above runs out of things to research go for the AC, then truck and finally L.Arm.
one team supply transport and org and repair, repair need Navy Consent
one on the art techs. not rocket tech, even then he will fall behind.
Start of '37 heavy fighter, for the +25% interception.
one on Other single engine techs. Need Navy consent the follow up escort fighters are useless to single engine airforce.
one team on the land training, starting with Inf, Officer and art.
one team on the land doctrines and operations.
the 2 above helps each other out if possible.
one team on fighter and CAS training (should navy give consent to fighter as they might need them or should we just say that we would be using the CAG as much and then each just pays for their own?)
one team on fighter doctrines, except focus. Need Navy consent
one team on the 2 interdiction techs, might be same as the air training team.

hmm that's it.

IJN command wishes to inform the army that we will produce our plan shortly.

Personally, I don't believe that 1 Gar units would be able to hold their own until reinforcements arrive, which is the whole point of having garrisons there in the first place. 2x Gar seems to be the absolute minimum.

I was just thinking the likelihood of an enemy invading a size 1 port must be low
very well, we would need around 6 extra brigades for that I think.

IJN Plan for Q2 '36

Politics & Intelligence:
We reject the idea of restricting ourselves while others don't. Thus we do not sign the second treaty of London.

We advocate to abandon intelligence operations abroad while retaining a maximum of intelligence operatives in Japan to lower our neutrality.

To help our diplomatic efforts, we would encourage trade deals with the USA.


Research:
We still encourage to invest into marines, their doctrines and equipment. Most of this investment will benefit the army as well. Furthermore, we need to invest into light cruiser technologies as well as fleet doctrines for both battleship and carrier fleets.

We furthermore suggest to concentrate all our air efforts on CAGs. While they are not a perfect tool for every situation, they are sufficient in most situations. This would also result in fewer doctrines neccessary for our air arm in general to be effective and the army could lend CAGs from the navy if when the front advances too far away to use them from carriers. We then also are able to rotate our wings in an out of combat operations without delay and without concerns regarding their effectiveness since all wings will be composed of the same mixture of planes. Last but not least, concentrating on just one kind of wing would ease the strain on our industry.

Production:
We acknowledge the need to upgrade our forces, especially the army. Hence the IJN offers not to replace the destroyer flotilla with another run once it finishes by the end of March. Instead, the industrial capacity should be diverted to upgrades.
I personally offer to put the construction of the battlecruiser Ibuku on hold for 6 months. This will mean almost 10 IC more for 6 months in upgrades. Should the need for upgrades be satisfied earlier, the construction should continue.

Other production plans should be continued (ie Factories etc)

Fleet disposition:
1st Battlefleet: 2x BB, 2x CA, 4x DD - Will rebase to Truk as a forward defense force in our Pacific holdings
2nd Battlefleet: 2x BB, 1x CA, 1x CL, 2x DD - Will rebase to Taiwan to defend the island and act as a show of force towards the Chinese
3rd Battlefleet: 2x BC, 2x CA, 3x DD - Will rebase to Korea and patrol the waters around Vladivostok. If the Russians try something stupid, this fleet will blockade the port.
1st Carrier Fleet: 2x CV, 2x CL, 4x DD - Will anchor near our border with China as a deterent and as a forward air base to support ground operations
2nd Carrier Fleet: 1x CV, 1x CVE, 2x CL, 3x DD - Will act as general reserve near China. The escorts should be consist of the most modern types.

The remaining ships will return to Japan and assemble as the IJN Reserve. Of these, transport flotillas will be detached as needed. Generally, those fleets will still be lead at least by a cruiser with a few destroyers as escorts. the submarines will be put as far forward as possible, depending on the direction of the threat. They will try to harass enemy supply lines.

In case of war with China (Plan A), the carrier fleets will blockade the northern area of China and lend their aircraft to the army unless the Chinese are coming out to fight. The battlefleets will blockade the southern ports of China. The Carrier fleets will swap positions with battlefleets when then army advances south, so the army can count on continuous air support and shore bombardments by the navy.

In case of war with Russia (Plan B), the fleets will blockade the Russian Pacific ports. Again, the Carrier fleets will support the army whenever possible.

These are the most likely opponents we can face within the near future. Other plans are currently being drawn up to cover other eventualities.


Regading the plans of General Surt: we can only comment on these once they are finalised.

Imperial Generals,

I am sure nobody here is advocating to strip the Soviet/Manchurian border bare, least of all myself! Who has proposed that we still build new units to put there.

Milita are weak, cannot really fight and would be utterly pointless, except for the fact we have a very large border to defend, and any gains made in mainland China will need troops to protect.

Japans Industrial capacity is not yet great enough to field a standing army that can do all this, hence we need a stop gap measure, as we develop new and better weapons, we can hand down the ones to local forces destined to 'keep the peace'.

One man with a rifle is still one man with a rifle, be he supported by tanks, artillery or assault weapons. The soviets will count the number of men, not the number of guns

General Surt you assume the soviets are in an 'imperialistic mood', how can they be when they are inward looking for 'traitors to the cause' at every step? They fear their own officers more than anything at the moment. With the officers themselves having to watch their own backs against the firing squad, they certainly won't be looking over the boarder while we spirit away some of the heavy guns, and bulk up our forces with new fresh Manchurian and Chinese millita.

Indeed, our puppet dictator should and will throw some of his weight around. He might be a fool, but he's not just sitting in an opium house drooling either. Don't be quite so quick to underestimate Manchurian forces adding to the boarder guard in the near future.



But more importantly look at where our strategy is lying;

1. We are creating a Casus belli for war in China.
2. China has been openly belligerent towards us with trade embargo
3. China infighting is damaging the Asian Peoples chances of ever becoming a world dominant over the Colonial Powers of the west.

These all point to us keeping the current China boarder forces the same if not more in number, rather than packing them off to some forsaken frozen lake up towards the Stanovoy mountains or similar. Particularly if we want to be following the strategy we have set ourselves.


It would be madness that having made the Chinese a threat, openly at home created a cause for action, we do nothing.

That would make our regime and the Emperor look weak well beyond any treaty signing, it is the home resolve, the fighting spirit of Japan that needs to be kept aflame, and we do that by fulfilling the promises that we make towards the Empires greatest destiny.



All this said, there is no need at the moment to move many of the armed forces in the region to new deployments, indeed the only thing that really need doing now, is a restructuring of the armed forces along the lines suggested previously. In order that they are ready for when we need call on them.

Then divisions in production can be assigned as they are produced to both.

Should the Soviets attack us, then my armed forces will be at your back General Surt and CommCody I will not shirk from my duty for the Emperor, however I see no plausible reason to believe that the Russians will have cause to invade us in the near future.

But I issue a warning here, should you go stirring up, seeking trouble, in Manchuria you will have more than you bargaining for even with any assets that can be taken from Inner Mongolia at the present time. We need to take out the Chinese and lay claim to their industry so we can match the Russians 1:1 as you want to do so.

Stick to the strategy;

...swift victory in China, gives us swift victory against the Soviets in Outer Manchuria and Siberia, which allows the Navy to finalise the Great Asian reunification...


Note:
Japan can currently build an army, or a navy, or go about 2/3rds of the way to building both. Neither of those abilities includes an airforce. Both the Russians, and Colonial Powers have strong airforces, enough to match, or possibly victor over our current light aircraft, even if they are still quite advanced at this current time.

Any campaign in Siberia or outer Mongolia will bring the Soviet airforce to bear on us from the 5 airfields in the region.

If we seek a 1:1 war, then we shall need a comparable airforce to deal with their heavy and tactical bombers, let alone the fighter wings that must exist somewhere in the Europes. Japan cannot build such fighter wings to match unless we can requisition Chinese manufacturing plants.

If we instead go for the jugular in a gamble, we can bomb, blockade and land in/near Ulya, and quickly push inland to take the airfield in the region, and then onto Jatkust. Similarly the Okha (or Chita?) airfield can be taken.

That leaves two tough airfields, Tyndinskiy and Vladivostok itself. With the latter’s proximity to Japan, it can be bombed into submission. The former lies across the Siberian railroad, a quick strike that way kills two birds with a single stone, cutting Russian supply, and eliminating the last true airbase in the region.

Thus what air assets we do have, will be able to range with impunity in the region, thus a matched airforce is far less important.

However this would not be matching the Russians in 1:1 combat, since once the supplies are cut, they must stay cut, and a pocket be formed, even if we concede some land to the Russians in the process. Within a few weeks they will run out of materials to fight with, and we can roll over their remaining forces with relative ease. At this time the first reinforcements will be arriving from the west, enough time to match them along the north and west.

This is the only way we could seriously proceed to win a war here without China's industrial and manpower capacity. Otherwise the Bolsheviks will just unify against us while we creep up the region, and come some months later we shall be facing the full might of the Soviet army at once.

While we may have built up 1:1 for Russia's eastern forces, we may be as bad as 5:1 when the full army shows up while we are still fighting the Russians in Outer mongolia. Indeed this would spell utter defeat, the lose of Manchuria and Korea and sending us back to the home isles. Particularly when we are developing this new organisation for our forces.


Let us have a year of war, of victory! against the Chinese and crush them totally, since we know they are weak, and then we shall be able to draw Gunagxi forces up though China to aid us in the conflicts in the North as well as having the veteran army, and new forces at our disposal.

By then we may have a 3:2 advantage on the Soviets, making it a better all round strategy in the long run.

1. Reorganise the forces in Manchuria into 'Line Army' status, and 'Asian Garrison', but not make any substantial changes to current deployments along the fronts.


Budgets, Production, Intelligence and Research

As for the second half of the years budget;
1. Repeat build of IC for 30 IC (when the first are finished) needs Navy consent. We need to keep the practical high. Continue the current factory constructions, and replace as and when they are finished, with the same.

Agreed.

2. Repeat build of 2xGar with art if needed until the above need is fulfilled.

We don't need artillery in garrisons (at the moment), a garrison just needs to hold till better forces or the navy arrives to oust the invading fleet. The artillery slows production cycles, if we build artillery as regiments (brigades) then we can assign them later to key regions, while getting the garrisons installed in their billets sooner rather than later is better all round.

Modified, but agreed.

3. Build of as many 2xinf as the budget allows in parallel (all as reserves), rather than put any new ships into production as current ones are completed. ---> until next meeting/1937

Agreed.


On 1 Admiralty, it is well worth your consent on this issue, since these are the factories that will be needed to keep your ships tip-top and up-to-date in any conflict, without you having to sacrifice on replacing lost ships.

Note: As and when research slots become available in following order;
Industrial Efficiency ---> (Always keep going)
Heavy Fighters
Marries
Infantry Training
Small Arms --->
Offensive Support Weapons --->
Defensive Support Weapons --->
(Man portable AT – if required again for Marines)
Industrial Production
x2 on Interdiction Doctrines (not sure what they are called off the top of my head, alternate)

Arctic Warfare
x2 On artillery techs (alternate starting on barrel)
Light Cruiser Armament
Supplies Production
Ftr Pilot Training
Repair Workshops
Rare Materials

[Insert some Navy techs here along their lines]
NO new CAG techs just at the moment, its just a bit too far ahead of time

Then possibly Supply throughput, Artillery Training, AC armour, CAS training
Then possibly Combat radios, education (these are very very very much ahead of the current year)

Note: Perhaps we should develop a tech strategy together after this year to take us to 1942, with a couple of free slots, and some more for the navy, and submit the list in that form.

On Diplomacy and Intelligence
We must agree to:
1. Continue intelligence efforts, otherwise hundreds of manhours are wasted. If the international community doesn't respect our legitimacy as a world power, then anything else we have achieved is worth nought.
Admiral Baltasar must be living in cloud cuckoo land to expect that the world would just accept us.

2. we* don't control trade with the US, they do. Naively hoping to stay on their good side by trade, while we thumb our noses to them by not signing the treaty, again shows complete irrationality. Rejecting the treaty will hurt relations, and hurt the oil trade, therefore completely undermining your foreign policy decisions!!
3. Send a diplomatic party to Guangxi as soon as possible if they have a 'maybe' stance to creating a partnership with Japan. After all they will need a little convincing and it might take a few attempts but we expect this.
4. Sign the Treaty in order that we do remain on good terms with the US and Colonial Powers, since it harms us little if anything now.

*Us players, trade is being conducted automatically IIRC.

Gensui Yamamoto said:

1. Continue intelligence efforts, otherwise hundreds of manhours are wasted. If the international community doesn't respect our legitimacy as a world power, then anything else we have achieved is worth nought.
Admiral Baltasar must be living in cloud cuckoo land to expect that the world would just accept us.

Click to expand...

General,

I do assume that the imperial powers which surround us will only listen to us if we do have the power to back up our words. Once this is the case, we can negotiate on equal terms, in which case we do not need to invest our scarce leadership in spies anyway.

Furthermore, while not being an army man, I do doubt the worth of Militas. They're poorly trained and equipped and I am doubtful both about their combat value and their loyality. Worse still, they will soak up scarce supplies in the logistical nightmare the world calls China. It would appear that either more regular units, be it dual or triangle divisions or specialised units, eg mountaineers or the marines will be required. The first will outperform the Chinese militas in every aspect and the latter will also do a lot better than anything the Chinese have while also being adapted to rough terrain and can operate with slightly fewer supplies.

If you intend to create a heavyweight infantry branch, it would appear that the logisitics required to keep that force operating would greatly limit the area where we can use them efficiently.

The navy will comment the finalized plan of the army once it has been published, except for the continued construction of factories, which we already agreed upon.

Baltasar said:

General,
The navy will comment the finalized plan of the army once it has been published, except for the continued construction of factories, which we already agreed upon.

Click to expand...

*Does the Sumo Superpower dance up the slopes of Mt. Huma*

Gensui Yamamoto, As I said, I will with all my heart support strike south, and i did say that we must attack the Soviets AFTER we get china, but we must be prepared if the soviets would like to knock at our door.

Most Honoured Generals,

You mistake me if you think I'd want to jump our northern enemy with a 1:1 local advantage, if it was only the local forces we should content with I'd do it with 2:3 disadvantage, like we did in our fathers time. But the truth is that we are relatively weak compared to the total force of the red army, a force composed of 4000 tanks (20 div?) and 200 other divisions. Right now we would need a diversionary attack from someone in the other end of Russia to even think about attacking.

As for the Soviet air force, atm. there are only 2 airfields within easy range of Japanese or allies possessions, Tumnin and Vladivostok, where the first is small and can be taken by an naval invasion. Vladivostok can't hold the whole Soviet air-force so we can have at least local parity. It also looks like wherever we could conceive a front, no more than 2 airports would be available the the enemy and most of the time it would be 1 on each side.

Should a conflict start somehow, the relative strength in the theatre would dictate the attack plan. I will sketch 4 possible plans in increasing favourable odds to us. Each plan requires local superiority and possible invasion to support the plan, each include the previous at some stage.




Plan B - Defensive war against Bolsheviks aggression.
Plan B.I The Replay of Port Arthur.
Relative weak compared to Soviet force, cut of Vladivostok by going from the north-eastern tip of Manchuko east to the coast.

Plan B.II The Continuation Attack
Relative equality, attack North east of Mt. Huma toward the North east.
Invasion of at least the 2 middle ports, which moves attack west meeting up with the Mt. Huma force.
Split the pocket and defeat the troops in Vladivostok fast, they have our supply chain.

Plan B.III The far Eastern plan
Relative superiority, attack from the Northwest toward Lake Baikal and north to cut off all of Soviet far east.
Landings at all northern harbours.
Defeat in detail of the force starting with the Vladivostok Military District.
This can most likely be done without big infrastructure investments.

Plan B.IV The Cody plan.
Clear superiority, such as the Soviets leaving the border totally bare or an attack by a major power in the west.
Attack along the Trans Siberian rail toward Moscow, at the same time as the others. Diversionary attack north of Lake Baikal, the more Soviet units that goes to the northern front the better as they steal supplies from the southern and gives us the possibility to pocket them.
Attacking Mongolia and Tana Tuva to broaden the front.
This also requires some slight investment in harbours, rails and airports to keep things going.

Now enough of these contingency plans. Well one last thing the naming of the plans, we got these so far.
Plan A : War with the US(A)
Plan B : War with Bolsheviks
Plan C : War with China
Plan D : War with the Dutch
E - England and colonies
F - France and colonies
G - help GuangXi in any conflict with Kuomintang (that opportunity passed sadly).

In principal Yamamoto is right that a decisive victory over China would be best, and best fast, and I'll add without being back stabbed by Stalin.

Regarding Air force, the current force is enough against any one opponent, again defeat of China frees up all aircraft. Also due to the few airports they would be enough against the Soviets. Against any other the distances are simply to long and more suitable to CAGs, but we can discus that again when we have developed heavy fighters and see their capabilities. So in effect I see the next 2 years as having no builds of planes with the exception of some CAGs for the navy and maybe a 2+ CAG reserve.

Budgets, Production, Intelligence and Research
1. Continue the current factory constructions, and replace as and when they are finished, with the same. Navy has Approved.

2. Repeat build of 2xGar as reserve with art if needed until the above need is fulfilled. I would think we would want Gar with art in the homeland before we get to war with any major naval power, war games has shown Susaki is especially tempting to invasion.

3. Build of as many 2xinf as the budget allows in parallel (all as reserves), rather than put any new ships into production as current ones are completed. ---> until next meeting/1937
I agree it would be nice of the Navy not to start any more ships before mid '37 especially as they got 40% of the BNP invested in ships currently!

Research
I must disagree with any ahead of time research, but as I see the proposals here we might bef forced to have a single research team working on ahead of time projects, but even that would be the same as wasting 1 research team.
The relevant potential ahead of time projects are marked with *1.
The Navy approval needed are marked *N

So this is a priority list, no ahead research for now just skip to the next.

Note: As and when research slots become available in following order;
Industrial Efficiency --->*1 *N
Heavy Fighters
Marines enabling tech*N Approval Given
Infantry Training
Small Arms --->*1
Offensive Support Weapons --->*1
Defensive Support Weapons --->*1
Man portable AT – (if required again for Marines)
I would only research 2 of the basic infantry tech at the same time so we can benefit from the continuous theory gained, also this lessens the army footprint in the tech area. Fill up with Arctic, mnt and eng tech in any gaps.

Industrial Production *N
x2 on bomber Interdiction Doctrines (not sure what they are called off the top of my head, alternate)

Arctic Warfare - see above
x2 On artillery techs (alternate starting on barrel)

Supplies Production *N
Ftr Pilot Training - why not ground crew?
Repair Workshops *N
Rare Materials *N - why this, south China should give us more than enough?

Then possibly Supply throughput, Supply cost Artillery Training, AC armour, CAS training
Then possibly Combat radios, education (these are very very very much ahead of the current year) well these were contingency for when they are not ahead of time


Land training and doctrines
Fighter Intercept and command *N - the navy wouldn't want to lose their precious BB/CV's due to bad interception?

Radar *N - this is a real nice navy tech, but usable by air units too, it makes the difference between major power and greater power.


So the southern HQ want to Smurf the Land training and doctrines???
If we go with 4 ahead of time project all the time, there will be very limited resources left for any other research for the army.

Supply cost, will eat your heart out when you got lots of provinces so its a must too.

Removed the Navy only projects as they must specify which (if you are missing the tech from HPP one of us who have them can upload them) I would guess the navy would research capital gun, LC, CV and BC??? techs, naval air, basing, range???.
The doctrines that are mentioned by the Navy are first available '37 if they don't want to research ahead of time.
I would ask the Navy to prioritize their research so the Emperor can spline the 2 lists together.

Intelligence
I think we should continue on the path we started with the warlords, given the extra need for troops it would demand if we don't get them on our side I see no other option.


Diplomacy
The Naval treaties.
The navy should consider if they really need or have the resources to research the prohibited technologies any time soon, as in sooner than they can break the agreement again.
We should embargo the Chinese Communists, just to show the Kuomintang that we "support" them.
The Chinese will themselves give us a casus bellum due to Chiangs desire to unite China.

On the Soviet Airforce
It is my opinion that it may prove to be a far more disrupting factor in the region than we might guess. The Russians have long range aircraft, much more than us and so can utilise their air assets more effectively than us.

That being said, I would envisage a Plan B.III to actually prove to be overall more successful. While it creates a larger pocket that may be more difficult to contain, it also puts us in a possition to create a corridor from Ulya that we can close, given the campaign occur immidately after the sea ice and thaw sets in. By the time the corridor might be closed, winter will be almost upon us, thus making it far easier to hold a corridor during the winter when all assets will be bogged down in the snow, meanwhile the Vladivostok pocket will stave in the snow...

But anyhow more pressing matters...

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Final Plan of the Imperial Japanese Army
[FINAL DRAFT PENDING FULL APPROVAL]

Status:
Gensui Yamamoto [SS] – Approved
General Veteran Lurker [SS] - Pending Approval*
General Surt [SN] – Pending Approval
General Comm Cody [SN] – Pending Approval

Admiralty Stamp of Approval On Homeland Affairs and Naval Research - Pending Additions, Pending Approval

* Don't know if your still taking part???

I.
Our general major strategy should be to seek 'Major Power' status (100+ IC) then onto ‘Great Power’ status over the next few years via actions in China.

...swift victory in China, gives us swift victory against the Soviets in Outer Manchuria and Siberia, which allows the Navy to finalise the Great Asian reunification by expelling non-asians from Asia and building Japan into the world power she is destined to be!

It may be a long struggle, but it will only be made longer and harder by dithering caution, by coming together and focusing our assets on each objective in turn we gain southern territories, northern territories and then build The world class navy to fend off anybody else’s claim to the Empire of the Rising Sun!

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Let us remember our focus and overall stratergy. This general would also welcome the Navy's thoughts on the last point.

II.
1.a Continue to support the Warlord cliques (Yunnan and Guangxi) in western China
1.b Seek to, and repeatedly envoy Guangxi/Yunnan to sign a military alliance as they become threatened by the Kuomintang, and come to the axis corner if at “maybe” status.
2.Sign the Naval Treaties, as there is nothing to loose by doing so, other than face with the international community isolating ourselves from them. Good relations with the Colonial Powers needs to be fostered as long as possible for Japan’s long term prosperity.
3. Embargo the Chinese Communists, since communism stands against everything that we hold true and dear.

III.
1.a Continue the current factory constructions
1.b Replace as and when they are finished by new ones. Navy has Approved.
2.a Repeat build of 2/3xGar as reserve until all the following are properly garrisoned;

-Any port in mainland Japan, ie. where you can walk to from Tokyo, should have 3xGar(+Art)*.
-Any port on the Asian mainland should have 2xGar, including incompetent puppets ports.
-Any other pacific port should get 2xGar
-Any size 10 port should get 3xGar+(art)*, (that should be Truk and Kaohsiung on Taiwan).

*2.b.I Build the pure garrisons first. Artillery should be constructed separately as a new stream to speed up garrison training. Artillery can be sited later, and individual garrisons can train with their guns while on site.

CLAUSE 2.b
We may need to start artillery builds at the beginning of 1938 in order that they will be ready come the end of the same period of garrison construction. Should all pure garrisons become finished during this time, then start on the Artillery brigades.

3. Build of as many 2xINF reserve divisions as the budget allows in parallel, and continue production as and when each are finished.

IV.
The IJA propose a 'research priority list'. I will separate it into three sections; Army, Naval and Homeland Affairs. Technologies at the top of each list are the highest priority. ---> +N , where N is a number ('36, '37, etc.), represents continual research to such level (if such doesn't exist, pick the closest to, round down). * Represents ahead of time research. & represents alternate between both programs.

This list will need to be updated every cabinet meeting, changing year, techs or processes. The list will be intended to require slightly more research programs than we can truly fund, such that as some projects are completed others can be started on.

Techs should be allocated by one from each sector, until total research capacity is filled. ---> research projects still retain tenure in the list until date is met.

Note: Homeland Affairs will need Navy ratification.

Homeland Affairs
Industrial Efficiency* ---> '39
Industrial Production * ---> '38
Supplies Production*
Repair Workshops*

Rare Materials*
Supply throughput
Supply Cost
Combat radios*
Education*
Radar*

('high tech' construction programs will deplete our warehouses, which when we have greater industrial capacity we shall need to be filled again quicker because the greater production will deplete them faster. We could have sort trade details, but the Dutch may not be willing...after all we don't have control over the civilian economy. We shall need to enquire from the Customs, Industry and Trade ministry as to the current economic state of affairs. Perhaps the Emperor will help us cut through the bureaucracy)

IJA
Heavy Fighters*
Infantry Training & Artillery Training ---> '37
Small Arms* ---> '39
Offensive Support Weapons ---> 38'

Arctic Warfare Equipment
Artillery Barrel & Artillery Sights ---> 37'
Defensive Support Weapons ---> 38'
Ftr Ground Crew Training
AC armour
CAS training

I believe that given less troops per division, they will need to have the best equipment that Japan can offer, they not only need to be contemporary, but world class to some degree. We can debate alternations/order if you feel we need some different order to things.

IJN
Marines*
Fighter Intercept & Command

Admiralty might want to specify some for your list, or you can allow the Emperor to dictate along the lines of your proposals. Note: CAG and Air Doctrines will be considered Naval Technologies, as per Naval Aviation focus from our sitting minister.

The IJN would also like Light Cruisers to be researched to a 1940 level before 1940 at latest.

Well I can approve I, II & III
but I'm not sure of what you mean by your notation in IV.

Does * means is currently ahead of time which would then => will not be researched right now as the date is no reached?

Techs should be allocated by one from each sector, until total research capacity is filled. ---> research projects still retain tenure in the list until date is met.

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I believe these 2 might also already be at '38 level
Supply throughput
Supply Cost
So should have a *?

So for now this would mean as both have a '38 level that they will be advanced researched but as they are in the same group only one of them at a time?
Industrial Efficiency* ---> '39
Industrial Production * ---> '38
This would be the only ones that would be researched on in '36 I believe form the Homeland Category?

Ftr Ground Crew Training

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Is Ftr pilot training missing on purpose?

I believe that given less troops per division, they will need to have the best equipment that Japan can offer, they not only need to be contemporary, but world class to some degree. We can debate alternations/order if you feel we need some different order to things.

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I got to explain my reasoning for the dual divisions real soon, not sure I got the time today.

So in effect you want to research Small arms, offensive and defensive weapons to '38 ahead of time?
Some or all of these ahead of time researches would be 2 years ahead when they start, which is a steep price increase of 150% more time (250% of the time of none ahead research) or 15 months vs 6 months ... which means we could research 2,5 in the same time as 1 otherwise. With one year ahead its down to 50% more time ie. 9 month vs. 6 months.
So I would suggest a compromise, start Production efficiency and Small arms asap in '37 pushing others out of the bottom to start them, and let that be the only 2 we research ahead of time and then let the rest be on time. This would only cost us one tech but will bring us most of the benefit anyway, this would only be around 6 months delay on those 2 relative to asap ahead of time.

Regarding the resource needs, the expansion we make now and from any protection scheme in China should be meet by the civilian trade, we might see some fluctuation in the USA trade with seemingly random cancellations, but that is just USA speculators(sp?) that try to corner the market (note 1)

To get to Marines we need at least one level of man portable AT, which I don't know if we already researched. ('34 or '36 tech?)


Note 1 - HPP's resource reduction makes the USA trading AI behave irrational as it believes its losing resources when it really has too many.

DoomBunny said:

The IJN would also like Light Cruisers to be researched to a 1940 level before 1940 at latest.

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We still encourage to invest into marines, their doctrines and equipment. Most of this investment will benefit the army as well. Furthermore, we need to invest into light cruiser technologies as well as fleet doctrines for both battleship and carrier fleets.

We furthermore suggest to concentrate all our air efforts on CAGs. While they are not a perfect tool for every situation, they are sufficient in most situations.

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So the navy only wants to research CL tech ahead of time? Might I be so bold as suggest you don't do more than one year ahead for the same reasons I think the army shouldn't do it. One year ahead +50% time, 2 years ahead +150% time.

And out of curiosity I have to ask, you don't plan on bringing BC or BB tech's up to date? nor research CV techs when they are on time?
I believe the BC/BB techs are behind time if you want to use them, but you might have a cunning plan I can't deduce, are you waiting for the first BC/CV to finish before researching or?

Light Cruisers are the most useful vessel we can possess. They are capable of fullfilling nearly every job we have. It makes sense to have a strong force of modern Light Cruisers to back up our capital ships.

The following fleets will be created from the current mix of ships across the empire:

1st Fleet: 2x BB, 2x CA, 3x DD
2nd Fleet: 2x BB, 2x CA, 3x DD
3rd Fleet: 1x CV, 1x CVL, 4x CL
4th Fleet: 1x CV, 1x CVL, 4x CL
5th Fleet: 2x BC, 4x CL

These fleets will form the backbone of our navy. The escorts will be selected so that they do not slow down their capital ships or limit their operational range. This does leave the older ships, submarines and transports.

The submarines will operate individually when reconnoiting enemy positions and in groups of two when operating against enemy supply lines.

6th Fleet: 1x BB, 1x BC, 2x CA, 3x DD
7th Fleet: 1x BB, 1x BC, 2x CA, 3x DD

These two fleets will act as blockading forces and thus will employ the older ships. They'll suffice against smaller navies and will be able to add some serious firepower if the army should so require it.

The remaining units will be detached to the Imperial Japanese Naval Reserve (IJNR). This pool contains:

8x Heavy Cruisers
7x Light Cruisers
14x Destroyer Flotillas
20x Transport Flotillas

Ships from the IJNR will be used to replace lost or damaged ships in the fleets. Furthermore, they will be dispatched to escort transport flotillas whenever the need arises and lastly, ASW groups can be formed from this source as well.

Operational plan: War with China​

In case of war with China, the fleets will deployed in this manner:

3rd Fleet: Gulf of Chihili
4th Fleet: Haizhou Wan
1st Fleet: Wangpen Yang
2nd Fleet: North Taiwan Straight

5th Fleet: Operational Reserve at Taiwan / Kaohsiung
6th Fleet: Truk
7th Fleet: Operational Reserve in Home Waters

3rd and 4th will blockade Chinese ports and lend their CAGs to the army. At the very least, they will ensure air supremacy within their area of operation. They will march south when the front advances.
1st and 2nd will likewise blockade the Chinese ports further south. 5th Fleet will act as immediate reseve in the theatre while 7th Fleet will be ready in our home waters if the enemy should slip through our fleets. 6th Fleet will secure our Pacific holdings from Truk.
Submarines will be places along the Chinese coast to recon their positions, surplus submarines will conduct convoy raids.

Operational plan: War with Russia​

The Battlefleets will blockade the Russian ports while the Carrier fleets will support the army with their CAGs. 6th Fleet will remain at Truk. Submarines will recon enemy positions and try to sink their convoys, although we do not expect many trade routes here.

Further plans for other opportunities will be published at a later date.

DoomBunny said:

The IJN would also like Light Cruisers to be researched to a 1940 level before 1940 at latest.

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To clarify, this must include doctrines/radar techs applicable to the light cruiser as well.

Most Seaworthy Admirals, what is your stand on ahead of time research given the stiff penalties on it?