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Last edited by Saithis; 08-04-2012 at 17:01.
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19th August
We're now ready to declare we on Nationalist China again.
Here is the pre-war situation.
Shanxi - First Army
First Army OOB
Navy near Qingdao
On board these transports are two corps. The GI V Corps to be used to perform the amphibious attack and the JJ Corps I. This JJ Corps was selected because it contains 3 mountain divisions. As you can see on this map, mtn divisions are king on the Qingdao pensulia.
This attack is a risk and we are developing marine divisions. However when considered, if the attack fails we will be ready to attack again with the same forces in January, which is when the Marines will be completed. So it seems a waste not to attempt to attack. Strategically we intend to divert Chinese troops away from the north. We cannot concentrate the troops needed for advances in the north because of supply, so the only way to ensure advances in the north is to reduce Chinese forces to a level where our supplies can manage an offensive.
These plans leaves 3 corps of the second army in reserve on the home islands, perhaps for a Shanghai invasion. But first, we wish to see Chinese troops diverted into Qingdao.
War declared!
20th August
Unpleasant surprise in the battle of Qingdao, the Chinese divisions were at high readiness. CAGs perform port strikes and naval bombers from Dalian fly to support the battle.
Landing pattern. 3 divisions in center with 1 on each flank.
As night falls, the Chinese navy skulks out of its bases.
We lost none, they lost none.
22nd August
Enemy reinforcements are drawing precaricously close to Qingdao, victory must come soon. 70%.
23rd August
Major General Mori manages to bring all five divisions into the combat at Qingdao, versus 2 militia divisions with 1 imminent enemy reinforcement.
24th August
At 2am we were 85% to victory, this drops to 68% as the enemy militia division reinforces and is held in reserve. The Chinese commander has to bring it into the combat fast however as the two fighting militia divisions are near routing.
At 6am he has failed. The Empire of the Rising Sun has returned to Qingdao!
The victorious GI V Corps immediately radiates to get the encirclement kills on the three enemy divisions. The JJ Corps I immediately docks in the port and marches forward to take defensive positions in the hills westwards.
We managed to sink one of the Chinese ships leaving Qingdao port, a minor transport boat the Ying-Swei. The other two enemy ships in the fleet head south towards Shanghai and our waiting carrier group where they manage to enter port with no losses, the CAGs were immediately switched from ground attack to port strike to see if the damaged ships can be finished off.
The Shanxi front lines are quiet, which suits us at the Chinese are beginning to move units back.
26th August
We successfully capture Zhaoyuan without incident. This cuts off the pensulia and condemns the 12 enemy militia brigades to their fate.
Our panzer and mountain division pushes into Rizhao to establish the new defensive lines.
27th August
Good news from the war ministry.
CAGs report on the state of the bombing of Shanghai.
3rd September
A GI division completes training and is assigned to the GI VI corps on the home islands.
In the battle of Penglai, the last of the 3 chinese militia divisions is wiped out. The GI V Corps now marches to reinforce the JJ Corps I on the frontline.
6th September
The Qingdao landings are now a success as our forces have taken their positions on the new front line with panzerscout and mobile units in reserve. We estimate that the nationalists reduced their forces on the Shanxi line by around 1/3rd in response to this with several areas open to attack if we ship in one of the three corps we still have in reserve on the home islands.
----
Reposted as per Saithis request.
With that amour and motorised you placed down in '36, I can know with certainty there is going to be huge supply issues for you in China, even if you haven't seen them with the taking of Shanxi. Simmilarly artillery should stay out of mountain divisions, it just makes them worse.
From those points of view you've actually done the very worst things you can do as Japan!
Having said that, you've got Thailand, if you increase infra here to the Burmese border, taking Burma out later will be much easier...
Edit: Having read through some of the updates in more detail I can see you were having serious supply issues. That will not be going away at all for the rest of the battles in China, I put it down to your choice of unit types, which are fair high supply types.
You can sort out the Hamhung problem by putting supply convoy on manual, then routing supply to a new port in China and closing down the old ones. Hopefully the AI sees a resource surplus and switched. It also appeared to help to move theatre HQ, but I don't know if that really works. However being supplied from Korea is not the issue here, it is your unit type in my opinion.
In my experence Japan does best with CAV as its 'fast units' and binary/trinary infantry divisions, with the Artillery being consentrated in a couple of corps of binary infantry divisions (heavy infantry). Let the masses hold the line, and press the attacks with your heavy infantry and CAV, and that gets you fairly low supply, but strong attack divisions.
Another route to take is to go your 'GI' route, but spam a ton of milita even as a major. You'll have the manpower, you've got the tech advantage for them and the IC to at least treble your starting army before 1940 no problem.
Helps with the allies fine, but lacks vs the soviets since you do need to throw in AT and air power vs them and weight of numbers won't cut it.
Last edited by Gensui Yamamoto; 08-04-2012 at 17:17.
9th September
The garisson at Naha comes under-attack from a Chinese fleet carrying an unknown division. The flags of Guanxi Clique are brazenly flown from the ships.
It appears we are at war, although they have dispensed with diplomatic protocol in failing to inform us. A carrier fleet is nearby and sent to intercept.
We lost none, they lost none!
The enemy fleet eludes our grasp on the high seas but Naha is saved. A fleet with battleships is left to defend near Taiwan in case of further attacks whilst the carriers sail straight towards Guanxi Clique to occupy the seas between its ports on the island of Hainan and the mainland.
On the advice of a military attache, artillary are removed from the mountain divisions for service with divisions in Shanxi, many of which are triangular without artillary.
The South China Army is formed on the home islands ready to invade Guanxi Clique. It's waiting for the addition of a combined arms panzer division being removed from the Qingdao pensulia.
10th September
Enemy fleet caught by the battleship group. It consisted of a transport ship, now sunk.
11th September
The CAGs in Guanxi waters are ordered to begin ground attacks into the main port of Guangzhou. An air battle immediately breaks out.
13th September
The ground attack brings some vital scout information on Guangzhou. It is defended by four militia brigades.
The South China Army OOB as it boards the naval fleet and sails to the Hainan straight.
15th September
Japan declares war on Portugal.
We decided to take the undefended province of Macau as our base of operations in Guanxi then face a hard landing into Guangzhou.
The JJ III and the JJ II Corps invade Macau. Two divisons of the GI VI Corps invaded Hainan, a further three attack points on the coast of the mainland.
Afterwards the JJ II Corps will attack enemy VP points to the northwest of Guanxi, whilst the JJ III Corps works to surround and destroy the garission of Guanghzhou. The GI VI Corps will be used to form a coherent front line to the north as the JJ Corps perform their objectives.
Our threat to the UK has climbed to 80.
16th September
Guanxi troops arrive at the Qingdao frontline, several hundred miles away from where they're needed.
Interceptors and a bomber squadron are rebased to a captured airfield on the island of Hainan.
18th September
Battle of Guangzhou starts.
19th September
We are victorious in the battle of Guangzhou!
Our troops begin advancing forward, we could of delayed the initial attack into Guangzhou to encircle it before trapping the division inside but Macau is only a level 3 port, with one level of damage so it was more pressing to capture Guangzhou.
20th September
Second carrier fleet arrives but it's not needed for now.
23rd September
We capture Guanzhou and continue rolling northwards.
27th September
The treaty of Munich!
Over-view of current situation.
The battle in the north is a light panzer scout force trying to break through an enemy militia division. It is helping us prevent this force from retreating to the Guanxi capital of Guilian.
1st October
An advancing panzer corps finds the route to victory blocked by an enemy militia division at Liuihou. 9% to victory
3rd October
The Guanxi Clique has now reinforced a substantial amount of divisions into the province, standing at 9 divisions that the South China Army is aware of.
4th October
Two panzer divisions reach the Nationalist boarder, but we avoid pressing on due to mountainous terrain and the presence of enemy divisions.
8th October
ScoutPanzer reaches the VP province of Gulian and begins assaulting the urban capital. It is 1% towards victory versus an infantry, militia and HQ divisions. We do not consider this to be a serious attack. South of it is the province of Lipu where our infantry is trying to break through to join up for the attack on Gulian. Here, we are 52% towards victory against one fully organised Guanxi infantry division with two of our own.
Southwest of this is Liuzhou where a big battle is raging between two combined arms panzer divisions support by two infantry against 2 militia, infantry and HQ. If we capture this province, we will be able to either attack Gulian or another VP province (also named Liuzhou). Taking either will mean victory.
West of this situation is a weak mobile division racing towards Bose, another VP province. With Guanxi 82% towards surrender, this province too could mean victory.
On the eastern side we are undermanned because there's no VP provinces to prioritise the region. We're trying to hold our positions and hopefully push back the Guanxi here, but it's more of an aspiration given our shortage of divisions (4).
9th October
We are victorious at Lipu!
10th October
Guanxi gets desperate as it tries to block the road to Bose using a 10% strength HQ. Battle of Liuzhou creeps to 66% towards victory. We halt the attack into Guilan as the enemy forces were taking little damage defending, whilst our scoutpanzer lost 40% of their org value.
On the eastern front, three battles were won in quick succession due to the inate superiority of our soldiers. We can't capitalise on it however due to a shortage of divisions.
12th October
Reinforcements arrive, 4 divisions are now assaulting Gulian. Our motorised division heading towards Bose is 5 days from arrival and the battle of Liuzhou now stands at 90% towards victory.
14th October
Enemy forces appear to be increasing in number near Qingdao, we are starting to suspect a planned offensive. If they do carry out an attack we will do a fighting retreat.
16th October
Panzers roll into Liuzhou VP, 100% towards victory with Guanxi.
17th October
Guanxi Clique surrenders!
The situation in South China.
We were astonished to learn that the nationalists did not inherit any of Guanxi's divisions. This is possibly linked due to our earlier peace meaning the war was not considered an extention of the Marco Polo bridge incident. Japanese High Command was toying with the idea of a second peace with the nationalists after a Guanxi surrender however these plans were cancelled, we will not have such a good opportunity to win the struggle for China as these hundreds of miles of undefended land.
I took your advice on the artilliary - that has been redeployed now, didn't realise it actually made them worse. Does it lower their org value or something else? Added advanced construction engineering to the research queue for a possible burmese road later, that's a good tip thanks. If the supply situation gets critical in the north again I will try your advice and ship across the theatre command to Dagu as well, but I don't want to risk making a mistake at the current critical juncture of the game as of the last update. Can't act on the other advice as it's a bit late now however, things can only get betterOriginally Posted by Gensui Yamamoto
I believe artillery nerfs the mountain fighting bonus you get or something. Eitherway the only thing I've noticed is that 4xMTN, fairs 'oh so much better' than any other mountain division from when I've played Greece and Spain particularly (since you get starting troops with ART/MTN combos and such and can see it a bit clearer when you've not got oodles of divs like as the Soviets.
Don't bother upgrading infra unless your construction practical is good, otherwise its an IC soak and you might as well take the supply issues.
Your in a good position for the game me thinks, you shouldn't have too big an issue with the Chinese because you have large fronts, while the Chinese have the forces to man them, that spreads their millita thin (milita need to be stacked high when using them against better equip troops), and so overrunning the Chinese divisions should be easier.
Taking out Thailand early is another good move, never done it myself, but it should really help with the campaigns there since you can stock up supply piles, you have a couple of good naval bases there etc. etc. overall cool. It's a varient of the Pacific war I've not seen, so it pips my interest. Good luck!
You may have said so earlier, but I didn't catch it. Do you plan to join the Axis or are you going to go it alone? If you join the Axis you will get Indochina for free after Vichy forms and puppet Thailand for free. Was there any specific reason you didn't do so?
Also, it's been so long since I've played vanilla without the CMP that I forgot Zhanjiang made it into 3.05. Glad to see that some of my map work in that area will stay in the game.
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Only 2 IC for Siam and your stripping the pacific Garrisons. I don't know if that was a good idea. Perhaps a puppeting would of been more pertinent?
Thanks
I set out my objectives in the opening post
Objectives
Major - Japanese conquest of the world
Minor - A non-aligned Japan
This is why we went into Siam and also why we chose not to puppet it, world conquest in our eyes means just that. Although if we could re-conquer Manchuria at a later date, we will do so. Unfortunately I am unversed in the political machinations required to end the puppet rule and alliance with Manchuria, if someone could clear that up for me I'd be grateful and might be able to start setting the scene for this event.
Puppeting is not consistent with world conquest, especially given that I have an open timescale that may slide beyond '48. We reduced the strength of several pacific garissons but in all cases it was in the heavily defended provinces and leaving behind at least 6,000 garrison soldiers behind in that province. Our forces in the pacific are by no means threadbare but we will need to rotate these soldiers back into the pacific once China has been pacified. Finding out Siam only had 2ICs however, was a very nasty shock especially as it doesn't contain a great quantity of resources either.
Ah WC. Of coarse. And this is on VH difficulty. Will be interesting to see how you get on. Besides USA intervention is probably a ways off yet
17th October
We were disturbed by a briefing on foreign spies operating in our nation, both with regards to source but also to their operations.
Both carrier fleets moved out of the South China sea and headed north towards Qingdao, where enemy forces appear to be gathering for a big offensive. This pensulia suits our deployed units for terrain, has an escape route and only contains one victory point. Chinese concentration of troops here is the ideal location from our perspective, but we still wish to inflict the highest possible cost on the nationalists. The transport fleet sets sail for the home islands to collect another division to reinforce the Qingdao lines with.
We wish to start a general offensive at Shanxi to prevent movements of Chinese troops south, however due to our units being heavily stretched out it is imperative that we test Chinese forces first with an attack into Xingtai. Victory here will not expand our front line and further stretch our forces and three divisions are committed.
From Guanxi, a VP perspective of China informs us the southeast is a desert for VPs. There is absolutely zero value in holding that land and attacking or occupying the region is simply military folly. Instead all three corps are to push north and northwest to capture the heart of China's interior, 16 victory points out of China's total of 28 lie in this area. A further 2 are at Jinan-Jining near both of our northern front lines and 2 lie at the Port of Shanghai. If we are not victorious by January, we can simply use newly trained marines to capture the port and win the war.
The JJ III Corps will head directly north along a line from Guangzhou to capture Wuhan-Changde region at the eastern fringe of the central chinese heartland. The GI VI and JJ II Corps will head deeper into China. Panzer combined arms divisions will be broken into its scoutpanzer and motorised components to quickly seize lands.
The battle of Xingtai opens at 59%, a good omen for our chances in Shanxi.
The Chinese begin bombing our lead panzer force from the JJ III Corps enroute to Wuhan.
18th October
Chinese morale begins to drop in the Xingtai offensive whilst ours remains static.
We disengage the JJ III Corps scoutpanzer which was stuck in a losing battle with Chinese militia in the mountains and simply drive around the enemy division.
19th October
The militia division at Lechang mountains advances to Lianzhou and into the sights of a column of advancing infantry divisions of the JJ III Corps. It is immediately attacked to disable it as an effective force. Only one division will be committed to this to ensure it does not slow down our advance.
20th October
The battle of Lianzhou now stands at 60% towards victory as the Chinese militia division is unable to challenge our GI infantry.
We are surprised to note at the level of organisation we've lost in the offensive to Xingtai which now stands at 60% versus 40% for the enemy.
21st October
From mountains to jungle, the lead Panzer of JJ III Corps is not enjoying much luck in the battles it finds itself. Once again it is disengaged and simply ordered to drive around the enemy whilst the following infantry divisions will deal with them.
23rd October
The lead panzer of the JJ II Corps was surprised to find the route north blocked and surrounded by enemy divisions. It will have to wait for reinforcements.
High Command issued orders for all panzer units to return to Guangzhou. Concentrations of enemy divisions have blocked the path northwards and Panzer cannot fight through mountains and jungles. They will be redeployed on the northern plains and replaced with an exchange of general infantry.
Xingtai was captured and then lost. It was lost because our forces suffered too high organisation losses in capturing it, making vulnerable to a counter-attack. There won't be a general northern offensive until the panzers arrive.
All our mountain divisions are tied down in Qingdao whilst they were needed in Guanxi. I decided to abandon Qingdao again to redeploy more units to the south. Qingdao wont win us the war, the offensive into the heart of China can.
5th November
The situation in southern China. The enemy divisions are all comfortably located in mountainous provinces.
8th November
The evacuation of Qingdao is succesfully completed without any divisional losses to the second army.
9th November
The second army sails from Korea to the home islands to pick up two new divisions before it begins its next campaign in Guanxi.
12th November
The GI V Corps lands on the southeastern beaches of Japanese Guanxi to block the progress of two Chinese divisions threatening to encroach upon our gains and to march northward to threaten the flank of Nationalist China's new frontline of 27 divisions at Guanxi. The GI V Corps will be responsible for the eastern flank of our advance. After landing the GI V Corps, the fleet sails west to allow the mountain infantry divisions to disembark at Guangzhou.
This will form the central spear of our advance. The JJ Corps I is given control of central-east of the new front in order to dislodge the Chinese from a thin line of mountains that are preventing our advance. The urban area in the screenshot of central-east section of the front is the city of Changsha.
13th November
Chinese forces occupy the port of Qingdao. Three full strength panzer divisions arrive at Guangzhou in the south and board the fleet for transport to the open plains of Northern China.
18th November
Our hold on the western portion of the Guanxi front is increasingly shaky. Hongjiang is under direct assault, if the holding division is routed then the gateway to Guilin, the former Guanxi capital is opened and a maw into our defenceless inner Guanxi is also opened.
In addition, the Chinese captured Sanjiang which threatens to open up our lines. They captured it whilst our holding force was enroute, although we are battling to recapture the province it is mountainous but we do have 2 divisions to one.
The panzers land in northern China, we decided to keep them near the coast in order to keep them at the front of our supply chain, however they are currently out of supply, sent one of the divisions to the neighbouring province to reduce the sudden supply stress on the area. More important is the total abscence of fuel in the area.
19th November
Five divisions on the Guanxi line are ordered to move one province westwards, this will reinforce Hongjiang with one division but open up a hole in our front line a hundred miles away. Directly south of this new gap are the advancing soldiers of the second army with specialist mountain divisions. The Chinese are welcome to try their luck here and we'll see how far they get. The battle of Hongjiang may be lost before we are ready to reinforce however. Six days before our troops can reach the scene and the battle is already -83%.
20th November
The Chinese distrupt the west march by attacking us at Chengbu, forcing the movement to be cancelled. We will have to allow the Chinese to create this potential two province breach in our front line from Hongjiang to Sanjiang.
21st November
The nationalists would very likely accept a peace with us. I'm considering offering it and attacking Portugese Africa whilst re-building up to assault China with a bigger army, hopefully with 1940 tech upgrades - our military scientists say these will be ready mid march '39 and then they will have to be applied. At present there is very little quality difference between our militaries (we have -40% modifier) and they outnumber us with a superior supply situation.
We need cavalry en masse to break Xiebi San Ma and cavalry upgrades. There will be a window for us to develop these units and upgrades, with both done in April.
Ultimately peace makes the most sense as we won't win the current war with China and I don't want to fuel its war economy ahead of us.
Japan makes peace with nationalist China and its allies.
The stakes are getting very high as these diplomatic tactics are pumping my threat level. The Japanese economy of 1938 now stands at 153 ICs, a 50% expansion on the '36 economy. We regard the events of the last year as a military failure but a qualified strategic success.
Wow its nice to see an ARR where the writer isn't winning outright.
While its the boots on the ground that count, don't neglect the power of the bomber it can get you far. Japan is well placed for a world conquest game since once you've got India the world is your oyster....Perhaps not North America, but Europe and the Soviets yes...
Which type of bomber is ideal for Japan?
I saw in the influence wars AAR someone mention CAGs as the best planes for Japan as they can be rotated onto carriers as well. Also I figure that because of the importance of naval tech paths, minimising aerial tech paths is perhaps best? Very expensive and with huge delays as well, two features that do not sit easily with the present situation of Japan which is why my heart is leaning towards naval bombers which can be utilised for land warfare anyway. A quick check on statistics, 18ICs for 300 days vs 4.4 for 635 (naval vs cag) however when the CAG sea attack is 6.75 it's 10 for the naval bomber, so the difference in prices appears to be reasonably balance vis-a-vis cost of the plane.
Fewer but better planes are probably more ideal as they face lower chance of destruction in combat and lower the quantity of repair stress.
As for the world being my oyster, it's game over if China joins the allies before the truce expires. The panzers were so bad in the last war I think I will never make them again as Japan. Being beaten by Militia in the southern mountains and unable to unfunction in the northern plains due to supply. I do have an idea to put them in the same corps as the marines and use them for a Shanghai offensive into Nanking. Perhaps we will prevail, but may the path there be long and trecherous.
I generally go for CAS and CAG's with Japan, with some Interceptors, as the Practicals overlap and the same goes for some of the Doctrine techs.
MEIOU cookie • From Gigau.
Tanks could be useful later on, when you are invading Europe or something. In the jungle, mountains etc in China they are useless yes.
22nd November
Operations against Portugese assets begin. The South China Army Group gathers in Guangzhou, opposite Hong Kong - to prepare for the capture of East Timor. The main battlefleet sets sail for the port to rendevous with our forces.
26th November
A GI division completes training. Deployed to the home islands.
5th December
Our convoy came under attack near Goa, alerting us to a Portugese fleet in the region.
6th December
A corps of cavalry is ordered, at a cost of 42 ICs.
10th December
We noticed how close the nationalists are getting to the allies. This makes us uneasy as we can't declare war whilst they have a truce with us.
We decided to pursue war by other means.
Including distrupting enemy production. Note the estimated size of China's economy, we were only able to overtake that when we annexed Guanxi. For the last two years, China has been between 40% and after our annexation of Shanxi, 20% ahead of us.
14th December
1 factory was added to the production queue to improve our practicals ahead of a possible factory wave next year, ancipicating a victory in China.
17th December
Mechanised offensive was queued to the research agenda. +10 organisation to mot, mec and cav.
Christmas
We set sail for East Timor with 30,000 men.
29th December
Assault into East Timor begins.
30th December
Both ports at Vila Taverio and Dili fall, undefended.
1st January 1939
France has begun mobilising her forces. Japan is considered the highest threat to France. The allies continue to court Sinkiang, Yunan and Nationalist China leading to fears about an attempt to contain Japan by the allies.
5th January
Two marine divisons complete training. We decided to order the two CAGs needed by our carrier under development. We weren't able to order these previously due to budget constraints. The carrier is due to finish in late March, but the CAGs wont be ready till December 1940.
There is a rebellion in Siam, at Chon Buri next to Bangkok. Fortunately this occured next to the only infantry division we had present in the colony and we immediately attacked the rebel militia division.
6th January
After East Timor, our fleet returns to Siam to be joined by two carrier fleets. These three fleets will be used to attack Goa, if it's within the 3,000 range restriction.
10th January
The three fleets set sail for Goa. The combined fleet consists of 48 ships. With four carriers, it will be a message to be burned into the racial memory of Europeans.
18th January
We are victorious in the battle of Chon Buri, the rebellion is destroyed.
20th January
The JJ Corps III begins the assault into Goa's beaches. There is no resistance and Goa is captured within hours. The bigger of the carrier fleets, with 2 ships - is sent home. We're aware of a Portugese fleet 3 naval provinces out so the remaining carrier group is set out to patrol and hopefully intercept it.
One infantry division is left to guard Goa as the remaining two set sail for Tanganjika, which we can just make at the very maximum of our naval range of 3,000 km. Because of lack of fuel, it is moving forward at 2km/hour. Problem appears to be a damaged level 1 port at Goa.
8th Feburary
After landing at Porto Ameilia unopposed, our forces get to work on invading the hinterlands of Tanganyika. Portugal is often mocked at the Ghost Empire in Portugal, playing on both the complexion and epheremal presence of its garrisons.
12th Feburary
Our current colonial gains represents the limits for the three divisions of the JJ Corps III to police and defend so new divisions are to be gathered from the home islands.
11th March
The Marine Corps is formed in the Home Islands. It will be led by two marine divisions, supported by three general infantry divisions.
It is loaded onto the transport fleet along with the 1st corps (3 panzer divisions, 2 GI units). They set sail for the southern Japanese pacific islands. Research of 1940 infantry tactics completes, IC funding immediately made available for upgrades, at 82 ICs.
16th March
The rebased transport fleet sets sail south at a lazy pace with two corps aboard.
27th March
Germany annexes the Czech republic and Slovakia joins the allies.
The IJN Amagi is launched into the Bay of Tokyo admid much fanfare and foreign fear of what another carrier in Japan's navy means for regional security.
28th March
Italy annexed Albania
Japan declares war on New Zealand.
Our invasion starts on a bum note as we are informed the marines require fuel to attack because of their engineer brigade. The marines are left on the ships as the three supporting infantry divisions of the Marine Corps launches the attack without them, at the port of Auckland in the north of the north island.
31st March
South Africa joins the allies.
1st April
The battle of Auckland drops to 1% towards victory.
The Netherlands is mobilising.
Admiralty was questioned on the supply situation at Auckland and it was admitted they were based to the wrong port. They should of based to Truk with its level 10 port but in arrogance overlooked such petty precautions given the enemy was New Zealand.
3rd April
We abandoned the battle of Auckland with 1,181 out of 50,000 troops dead having killed 178 of New Zealands 24,851 soldiers and gave the admiralty the strict order to rebase to Truk.
Vice admiral Nagano was invited to committ Seppuku.
5th April
First supply ships arrive at the fleet from Truk. The invasion recommences this time with two divisions of infantry committed to attacking Helensville to support Auckland. We will lose these divisions if the attack fails.
The second battle of Auckland opens at 34% towards victory.
6th April
The Helensville divisions land and join the combat, raising progress to 50% and also irreverisbly committing us to continuing this assault, least we lose two divisions.
We had disheartening intelligence on the sheer scale of the nationalist army as border guards reported in enemy strengths. 3 divisions per border province in the south, in every single southern border province. In the north they had four per province, with large stacks of 6-7 divisions on the Xiebi frontier. We are barely able to place 1-2 divisions per province.
9th April
The carrier group we sent to support the invasion sheds its destroyer escort and moves closer to the north island that its planes can begin to provide ground attack assistance. 3 CAGs are part of this carrier fleet of 6 light cruisers, a carrier and an escort carrier.
11th April
A failing infantry division was pulled from the Auckland combat whilst the two panzer divisions attacking still had 50% organisation. Then we can reinforce a fresh division to rotate out the panzers.
14th April
Australia was accepted into the allies.
16th April
Status of the second battle of Auckland
20th April
New Zealand was accepted into the allies
22nd April
Developments in the battle of Auckland. At 60%, the allies haven't joined the war against me yet but I do feel like we're playing Russian Roulette in failing to make peace with New Zealand.
25th April
We are victorious in the battle of Auckland!
Seven divisions enter Auckland ready to move out and are given orders to capture the rest of the North Island.
26th April
The New Zealanders attempt to block us at Paeroa, however the effort is futile as their forces were spent from the battle of Auckland.
Within 10 hours we are victorious.
Luxembourg is mobilising.
The carriers sailed back to Truk for repairs on the CAGs. We don't feel it is acceptable to have a spent carrier group near allied Australia given the political risks we are taking on New Zealands membership of the allies.
30th April
Troubling news from Canada.
Humhuang's port level increased, another improvement is queued. This will be the port serving troops in Manchuria if war with the soviets breaks out so it is necessary for the long term as well as the Chinese wars.
1st May
The first of our new cavalry brigades finishes training.
7th May
Transport fleet arrives back at the home islands and collects 4 new divisions for the New Zealand campaign. All the new divisions are GI forces. The Marines are sent back to Auckland port to rendevous with this force in a week's time.
9th May
Two enemy divisions are slaughtered at Pauani, a pocket east of Auckland.
14th May
Due to the strength of the forces we are fighting in our advance down the North Island, we suspect Wellington to be poorly defended. The transport fleet has returned with four fresh divisions and is joined by a marine division at Auckland. It sets sail for Wellington.
16th May
Battle of Wellington.
It appears our hunch was correct.
17th May
We capture the port of Gisbourne in the east and the GI division marches back west to rejoin the combat preventing our advance south.
18th May
We are victorious at the battle of Wellington!
Fleet ordered to move into the harbour. One division is left behind to defend Wellington as the other four divisions set sail for Christchurch. One division is prudent at Wellington because we have just routed the defenders and the rest of New Zealands forces are in retreat halfway up the north island.
20th May
Five ships of the NZ navy set sail to engage us. 28-5 is the balance of power, however we only have 8 fighting ships in that fleet. One of which is a battleship, it may prove too hard for the enemy destroyer squadrons. One salvo from the BB IJN Kongo sets the enemy fleeing. The landings at Christchurch are 25% towards victory with four divisions vs one. The battles across the North island are stopped as our forces choose to hold their current positions rather then exhaust themselves advancing. Victory is assured if the South Island is captured, so the risk of defeat by exhausting our northern troops was not judged to be acceptable.
22nd May
No movements at Christchurch, the carrier fleet was dispatched from the repair docks at Truk to Wellington to provide backup if the Battle lasts more then a week, although progress has now climbed to 33%.
26th May
The Portugese attack our holdings in Tanganyika. We haven't captured the whole of the colony due to supplies running dry halfway across. Unfortunately for the Portugese, they are arrayed against the Great Qingdao division, responsible for destroying 12 enemy militia brigades in the Japanese-Chinese wars.
28th May
We are victorious in the battle for Christchurch, 95% towards total victory. Our forces prepare to land at Dunedin, which we cannot reach overland because of too low infanstructure. The carrier group begins ground attacks into the province to ensure that the last great battle for New Zealand is naught but a formality.
Our truce with nationalist China has expired. They are maximally aligned to the allies providing us with a great condundrum of who to attack and what are the chances of them joining forces.
Battle of Dunedin opens at 53%
3rd June
We are victorious in the battle of Dundein!
4th June
We are victorious in the war against New Zealand.
We rout the enemy attack at Villa Perry in Tanganyika.
5th June
The enemy government is hiding at Samoa. We set sail immediately with carriers and marines to ensure they are wiped off the surface of this world.
10th June
Assaulted and captured Samoa in the same day, NZ is now a government in exile deeply fustrating our plans to capture the full power of NZ industry. We settle for full occupation laws and leave five GI divisions behind, one for each port.
18th June
After two victorious battles, we are routed at Vila Pery due to lack of supplies. The fleet is enroute with a marine and GI division to capture the southern Tanganyikan port and end the campaign Portugal is waging.
After a survey of the extent, or rather lack of, NZ industry it was settled that a collaboration government would be more optimal.
--
The capture of New Zealand and the imminent conclusion of the Tanganyikan war when our fleet arrives represents the end of the opportunitist period in our expansion. We were able to take a potential allied nation out of the great game before they even start warring us. It will serve as an integral base for the invasion of Australia which will be my #1 priority if war with the allies starts. The jungles of Indonesia are a target, but capturing them will not reduce the scale of the forces arrayed against me. However Australia is a power that I intend to see eliminated fast should war with the allies break out. Fortress new zealand in practice requires two corps whereas we've only allocated one. If war with the allies breaks out we will have to quickly reinforce the region.
We now stand with a global empire, from Africa to Australia, southern Asia to northern Asia. Yet we are still unable to defeat the multitude of Chinese legions that stand vigiliant against us on the border. Perhaps a whole year of army production will be required to develop the sheer numbers necessary. Foreign adventures will have to be limited purely because we cannot keep diverting troops from China to minor conquests.
The question of allied ascendency for the nationalists is deeply troubling, but I feel it is beyond our hands and we will have to play wherever the dice fall.
Last edited by blackdown; 17-04-2012 at 20:36.
Disrupting production is a waste of time. It actually only slows down the repair rate of the country. This thread states it.
Hopefully that thread is right its recent so its probably right.
I didn't expect the invasion of New Zealand. Having to keep an entire corps of GI infantry is going to hurt you in china.
Yes and no.
I do need an extra corps in China.
I am not able to supply an extra corps in China.
I'm slightly further ahead with this game at the moment and a big flaw in very hard difficulty is apparent. It is not possible to supply the quantities of soldiers needed to fight against China given the -40% debuff. To put it into context, I loaded up both Shanxi and Guanxi until I started to spot intermittent supply shortages. In both cases I managed to get 2 divisions per border province, facing anywhere between 4-7 Chinese divisions. The balance of strength is around 1.3 Japanese to Chinese divisions. I am actually unable to declare war on China unless I want to lose both Shanxi and Guanxi and I cannot change this situation because of supply limits. Humhuang is now a level 8 port and the Guanxi front is serviced by a level 10 port.
The only possible route around this is to open a third front serviced from yet another port. I have a cavalry-GI based force for a Shanghai army but it is dicey to restart a war that I will lose if the Chinese attack us rather then defend at Shanghai. This army will break the supply of Shanghai without that extra corps at NZ anyway.
My brain is telling me it is better to fight the allies then to fight China again, there is something wrong with this at a fundamental level.
27th June
The Portugese capture Vila Pery as our fleet arrives. The fleet is ordered to attack the remaining enemy port at Inhambane, guarded by one enemy division against our infantry and marine division 59% towards victory.
6th June
Inhambane is in our hands and our forces head north to mop up Portugese divisions.
17th June
Hungary joined the axis.
7th August
Molotov-Ribbentrop pact signed.
12th August
Germany mobilises.
1st September
Danzig or war!
Germany declares a limited war on Poland.
2nd September
The Soviet Union declares war on Finland.
27th September
Germany enforced conquer on Poland.
28th September
Germany declared war on Denmark.
29th September
50 convoys come online, we had zero free convoys at the time so it's a big advantage for us. 26 are immediately given roles.
13th October
We manage to take out one of the two portugese divisions. With some units at port, we send in the fleet to withdraw 2 divisions. This might hopefully ease the supply stress on the remaining forces trying to eliminate the last Portugese force in Tanganyika.
23rd October
Germany annexed Denmark.
3rd November
Last Portugese division is eliminated at the British border.
25th December
We picked up the last of our expeditionary force at Tanganyika leaving behind two binary divisions guarding two ports. Set sail to Goa first to turn the division there binary before heading back to the home islands.
12th January 1940
Japanese OOB changes. After working out border unit placements, it becomes clear that two entire corps are needed just to hold the line in Guanxi. This force is slightly underpowered against the arrayed Chinese forces.
12th Feburary
We recognise that we are unable to force the submission of nationalist china in the present circumstances. We have built a strategic reserve of forces in the 'Shanghai Army' of 273,000 soldiers. With our minor conquests in Tanganyika, East Timor, Goa, New Zealand and Siam we will be able to fuel a larger economy then 133/161 ICs. We cannot achieve any of our objectives with our current level of strength and this is an important fact that needs recognising. Another war with China will put our diplomatic position in peril.
We will redirect our economy towards producing 20 factories. Two CAGs for the new carrier and a naval base upgrade at Humhuang will continue. The factories cost 5.25ICs and will take 12 months to complete.
Meanwhile our opponent will increasingly fall behind on a wide-front of technology and will hopefully struggle to perform upgrades on such a large military with a peacetime economy.
23rd Feburary
Cavalry upgrades and an uprising in Siam. Cav tech promoted to top of agenda and rebellion ordered to be quashed by a garrison division.
15th March
Soviet Union enforced acquire terroitry on Finland. Interestingly, this included the port of Hanko.
14th April
Finland is mobilising.
18th April
Germany declares war on Belgium and Luxembourg.
25th April
Sweden is mobilising.
27th April
Germany enforces conquer on Luxembourg. Germany declares war on the Netherlands.
24th May
Germany declares war on Norway.
8th June
The Soviet Union annexed Estonia, Lativa and Lithuania.
14th June
German progress in Europe
20th June
Japanese high command have spied an opportunity to turn the tide against the Chinese and three corps set sail for Guanxi.
11th July
The three corps are in position and Japan declares war!
This conquest will force the Chinese to thin our their frightening concentrations of troops and give our cavalry a devestating position against Xiebi San Ma.
12th July
Marine corps heads north, cavalry corps head west and GI head southwest. The cavalry corps was brought along so it can improve its combat experience before it engages the experienced forces of nationalist china in the next war.
State of combats
Although the Yunanese are nominally matching our divisions, we expect the true strength of forces to be reflected in a few days time as their divisions get destroyed.
17th July
Quality begins to tell its own tale.
20th July
The GI IX Corps are the first force to win their combat. The Marines are at 70% to victory and the cavalry corps I 40%.
21st July
The Marine divison routes the enemy defenders and begins marching into the mountains of Yunan.
22nd July
The Cavalry corps wins it battle.
27th July
As the cavalry breaks into its province it is given orders to bypass all combats and ride straight to the northernmost VP of Yunan.
3rd August
The Marine Corps captures its province, Kumning the capital of Yunan. We're hoping its supplies will fuel the advance to the remaining two enemy VPs.
4th August
The advancing parties.
A naval base level was built at Humhuang, another level was ordered. This is the last upgrade possible for the port and it will become a level 10 port. It is now a very different port to the one we had operating as our supply base in 1937.
7th August
I believe we can safely say that Paris and France will fall to the Germans.
16th August
With the fall of Kumning, the Yunanese are 84% towards surrender. Capturing Dali should seal the deal. Both the advancing Marines and the Cavalry will schwerkpunkt at this critical juncture.
24th August
Germany enforced the fall of France.
The Vichy regime was installed in southern France.
25th August
The United Kingdom had our finest hour.
26th August
France had the shame of defeat!
The battle of Dali begins and is immediately won by the Marine Corps.
30th August
Italy had It's our time!
2nd September
The USA had stab in the back!
15th September
Our forces capture Dali. We are 100% towards victory.
16th September
Japan annexed Yunan.
Italy declared war on Greece.
17th September
Maps of the Japanese Empire
Holdings in Eastern and Southern Asia
Holdings in Africa
Holdings in Oceania
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