The Setting Sun - 1944 v1.2 DD

[Rapcw]

The Turning Tide

By June 1944 Japan's fortunes are waning. What had started out as a successful and possibly victorious war with the Allies is now an almost assured defeat. The great victories in Malaya, Burma, the Phillipines, the Dutch East Indies, were now overshadowed by the great defeats: Midway, Guadalcanal, Saipan, the Phillipine Sea. Japan's once proud navy is a shadow of its former self, now hardly a threat the the huge American taskforces roaming the Pacific. Its once feared air force now scattered around the Pacific, its best pilots long dead. The war in China, once thought to be a guaranteed victory, is now a stagnant front, a waste of both men and supplies. American bombers are now nearly within striking distance of Japan itself, ready to cripple its home industries.

But there is hope. Japan's navy, while a shell, is a hard shell, and still a competent opponent. Her airforce, while scattered, can still inflict pain on the enemy. Her troops, while fighting with seriously outdated equipment, are fighting with high morale, and willing to fight to the death for their nation and their Emperor. The Japanese cabinet, once full of incompetents, is now run by men with more insight into what Japan needs to save her country. New carriers are being built, in the hopes that they will turn the tide after a long series of defeats.

Japan is certainly in a bad position, but there is still time to save itself.





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Hello everyone, I am back with a new AAR. With 1.2 now out, I decided to start a new AAR about my favorite country, Japan, this time playing in the 1944 scenario. Unlike my previous AARs however, this will be more of straight forward report, with less history book type narrative and more of me reporting what is happening in the game as I play. My settings are Normal/Normal, and my goal is to stop the Allied advance on my territories and in doing so hope to gain more land. It will be a challenging game for me and hopefully an interesting read for you all.

P.S. My Siam AAR is now officially abandoned. Sorry for all those interested, but hopefully this will make up for it.

[anonymous4401]

Hooray, another AAR...

...

Good luck. It seems that Japan is in the worst position in 1944.

[Congo]

Japan Will Never Surrender!!!! The Japan People Will Win Or Soaked In Their Own Blood But Kapitulaziones It's Not An Option!

[The Red Baron]

I've always enjoyed playing Japan in the 44' scenario, this should be fun watching you.

[Duke of Wellington]

This should be fun, difficult for you though guarding such a large spread out empire. Good luck to you.

[lifeless]

yay youre back! aww the siam aar is abandoned..good luck in this one tho!

[Spitfire_Pilot]

Awsome ! Another AAR by Rapcw, i loved your first Japan one, hope i like this one, and good luck

[Rapcw]

A New Start

Cabinet

The first thing to do is to get more effective ministers into the cabinet. This is done by replacing the former armaments minister with Fujiwara Ginjiro, for a +10% increase in IC. Next is to replace the chief of the army with Umezu Yoshijiro for a -15% in supply consumption. Ozawa takes over for the navy with his carrier bonuses, a Inoue Shigeyoshi is installed for HIS carrier bonuses. Naval battles, IMO will be the most important component of a possible victory, so I want to help the navy out as much as possible, and carriers are a very important part of the navy. This gives me 4 points of dissent, but I feel it is worth it. I also change my slider one over to standing army to help with the future upgrades I'll need.

Technology

The tech front is also a place where Japan is severely lacking. Oil is the number one priority for Japan resource wise, so oil refining is a definite priority in the tech department. In preparation for new ship builds I also research Ship Assembly Line, which will come in handy in the future. I research Advanced Infantry Division just to get caught up, as my highest tech currently is 1941 Infantry. I am also behind in land techs, so I research Central Planning Doctrine to get a 10% increase in max org. I also research Carrier Aviation Doctrine for obvious reasons. That rounds up the new tech.

Resources

Theres my starting resources and IC. Its not too bad. Infact I am really only losing oil and energy at a noticeable rate. So far. But that oil loss is killer. If I lose all my oil, I lose. So I have got to conserve it. I will do this by keeping my planes grounded, unless my home islands are being bombed. Other than that, as of now, all air operations are grounded.

IC is in great shape though, and even if I lose all my colonial possessions, with my home islands intact I can probably live until '53 bar any Allied invasion. TC is not too bad either.

Production

Here is my production plan for the near future. As you can see, production is focused on consumer goods, to bring down the dissent from the minister changes and to bring up the moneys from the starting 0. Also focused on is supplies, and reinforcements, but I will eventually get to upgrading after creating a stockpile and reinforcing.

In the production que(?) are four nice new carriers and their respective CAGs. Thanks to Paradox, Japan starts this scenario with 8 ships in the build que, 4 of them being carriers. The others are a cruiser, a destroyer, and two submarines, which I really don't have much use for. So I cancelled everything but the carriers, which spared me 12 IC. Also you can see the jump that was made by the minister changes, a full 12 IC. Not bad. That covers production for now.

National Comparisons

As can be seen, my Army isn't in too bad a shape. My real problem here is the inferiority of my equipment and how scattered my forces are. Still it can take the Chinese down pretty easy, so thats a start.

My navy, however, is in worse shape. Outnumbered over 5 to 1 in total ships by the big powers the UK and US, I am truly an underdog here. However, I do have quite a bit of carriers left, and if I concentrate all my ships in one area at a time, I will have local superiority and should be able to inflict heavy losses on the enemy. So I still have a chance.

Airforce is well outnumbered, and the problem here is scattered forces and somewhat inferior tech. However I have researched nearly all the air doctrines so I am good in that department. If I concentrate forces I should be able to inflict good losses on the enemy. But that is for the future.

Theaters of Operation

Japan in this scenario has many theaters in which to fight, so it is best to cover the main ones to help clarify the situation.

China

The Chinese theater, the most relevent to my army. It is a huge theater, and one that sucks to fight while your fighting a war in the Pacific at the same time. Due to the nature of this theater, I want to get peace as fast as possible here, and then when things have settled in the other theaters, attack the Chinese again, this time crushing them. So I will want to deliver a knockout punch to their army, forcing them to sue for peace.

And this is how I'll do it. Attack the vulnerable southern provinces, and pocket the 25 divisions in the sailent. Then, with help from my Japanese divisions in Manchuria which I will strategically redeploy to Nanjing, I will slowly reduce the pocket until all those Chinese divisions are dead. Then I will move west and conquer a severely weakened Nationalist China and its warlords, or if they offer a peace before then, accept it. Its a surefire win-win for me in any case if it works.

Burma

Burma is also a critical theater. Here I will be more on the defensive than in China, as I have too few troops in the area to not be. I take military control of Siam, and move their divisions from Shan States to Chiang Rai. I also move the divisions stationed in Kalewa to Mandalay, and those troops in Mandalay once threatened with encirclement, will also move to Chiang Rai. The divisions in Rangoon will move east to Sittang. Two more divisions from Singapore will also be stationed in Sittang, creating a pretty effective two province defense. This line will hopefully in the future be reinforced by troops in China.

The Philippines

This is a very important theater in the Pacific. Luckily it starts out quite well protected. With 10 divisions, 2 of those tank, and a competent air force, it will be a tough nut for the Americans to crack. But they most likely will try to attack, probably still mad about what happened several years ago. This is understandable, but while I understand their anger, I will not let them have these islands back.

Other Theaters

On New Guinea three of my divisions are pretty much DOA thanks to being encircled by the Americans, so I will not care to much about losing them. The Dutch East Indies are rather vulnerable to attack, with only a division or two defending the important islands, so hopefully they won't try to invade there. My Pacific island garrisons are also vulnerable, but they will all fight to the end. Hopefully. Manchuria is defended only by Manchukuo divisions, but that should be ok as I probably won't be at war with the Soviets until after Germany surrenders, and by then I should be ready.

[lifeless]

not looking too good with the navy...good luck with hte encirclement in china!

[anonymous4401]

That's a nice theatre summary. Good luck in China.

[Congo]

Luck is for dumb people...I WANT YOU TO HAVE SUCCESS!!!

[Rapcw]

A Twist In China

As planned, the attacks to close the pocket succeed, and are all over by noon of the 20th.

Also as planned, the forces in Aitape are quickly assaulted by the American divisions. They valiantly hold as long as possible, but thanks to American air support by the 21st they are but a memory. Bye.

However, on the 22nd, something didn't happen as planned. The Nationalists came to me with a tempting peace offer, in which I keep much of my northern holdings, including Beijing and some other important industrial cities. I did not expect them to come to me so soon, and I felt the offer was pretty good, so I accepted it. I wish I would have thought to redeploy all my divisions in China to Burma first though, as now they are all on their way back to Tokyo for some reason. No matter, this frees up lots of new divisions for deployment to anywhere I deem suitable, and allows for new amphibious operations. It also gives me a 1.5 year peace deal with the Nationalists, so I can thoroughly kick their ass next time around, and I won't have to worry about them while I'm conquering the Pacific.

On the 23rd, not wishing to be outdone by the Nationalists, Communist China offers me a white peace. This I quickly accept, as now I really don't need to worry about China, with no one there to fight.

As you can see, it wasn't a bad peace deal. With China secure, I can now turn my attention to the Pacific, and the enemies massive fleets.

[Duke of Wellington]

Good work on China and finishing off that theatre.

[anonymous4401]

Wow, what an unexpected turn of events! Now those army units can be put to good use elsewhere!

And if the Commie Chinese wanted to outdo the Nationalists, they should have offered you to annex them. :nods:

[Congo]

Surely you accepted peace with Communist China to stop the war in the chinese sector

[Panzer6]

You should also remember to build convoys for all those islands. No escorts as the enemy will never attack convoys.

[lifeless]

this is excellent! so youre taking all the divs in china to burma?

[Mo-jo]

With al those divisions in Burma are you going to be offensive in Burma/India? Where will you be getting your badly needed oil, is it still posible to trade with the Sovjets?

[GeneralHannibal]

Very good so far, sad to see about your Siam AAR but with this one replacing it, I think that's OK.

[General Jac]

Japan in 1944! I have never read an AAR about Japan in 44` the only 44` AARs i hva read have been about Germany. So good luck and I will keep a close eye on this one . Subscribed