Imperial Japan Black ICE - Hard/Hard

Doxs_Roxs · Dec 27, 2015

Hi

I have not played a HOI3 game for quite a few years, but decided to give Black ICE a go after rebuying the game a few weeks ago. I have played a few hours of Black ICE before this game, but to be honest, I dont really know what Im doing or whats going on at times

Since I never tried it before I figured Id give Japan a go. Settings are hard/hard giving me double penalties (my mistake, had no idea they stacked). I also set all axis powers to no modifiers, allies and the communists are set to the highest.

Post game start modifications:
After finding out I could not upgrade or rebuild named ships I got a bit pissed off and added that to the game for certain select ships. Since this was done in real life and it will not break the game I think it is good for immersion. (and my blood pressure)
An error with Yamato getting pea shooters was actually the deciding factor, will get to that later... But for you nitpickers, ships where subject to rather extensive rebuilds in reality, extending length, width etc. when being modernised.

Issues: I have frequent issues with crashes when saving games and have had to replay long periods. Therefore I have duplicate screenshots, I will try to sort them out but if you find inconsistencies this is the reason.

Also note that I am playing BICE mk VII v8.2 beta. Dont ask why I used v8.2 instead of 8.4...
I probably just forgot to check I had the latest version.
Thus, Im currently the proud owner of dual HOI3 installations

Doxs_Roxs · Dec 27, 2015

Part 1: Starting the buildup

My first course of action was to review the political situation, so much to do and so little time...

Several ministers replaced, incompetent idiots have been replaced with less incompetent idiots. I will not tolerate less then optimal performance in my empire. Now on to the decisions.

We have some rediculous request for help from Abyssinia?

They will receive no help from Japan. We have other plans!

There is apparantly a Korean independence movement. Such things will not be tolerated.

The Koreans will learn their place. The empire will not yield land, thats preposterous!

Next I review the army, it is a mess! I do not know who made this disorganized rabble, but this will be taken care of immidiately!

After much work the army is reorganized into a single HQ and appropriate leaders are assigned at all levels.
This reduced the unneccesary administrative overhead, and by assigning leaders with good logistical knowledge I have saved the empire a great deal of resources.

I have also ordered all imperial forces with the exception of a few garrison units to return to mainland Japan for reorganization and refitting. We have conquests to prepare for!

Next we look at our industrial power, it will need some major improvement the coming years to ensure the empire is well equipped for war.

This expansion will cost us in the short term, but will be extremely beneficial in the long term. The empire rests on its industrial might!

Interrupted in my reorganization and rearmament process by an idiot with a range of bad ideas I was almost tempted to have him executed on the spot. However, I see possible long term benefits in this tool, so Ill let him fiddle with something meningless while I attend something important. Like the railway cannon!

Of course I want a huge cannon, the day is already looking better!

It is already early February and I am reviewing the industrial output, it is not to my satisfaction!

An output of only 82 IC! Luckily circumstances has given me the excuses needed to mobilize the country and get out of this depression. We shall rebuild the empire!

Doxs_Roxs · Dec 27, 2015

Part 2: Coup and continued build up!

February 26 saw an attempted coup d'état organized by a group of young Imperial Japanese Army officers with the goal of purging the government and military leadership of their factional rivals and ideological opponents.
Needless to say, they failed. From now on the reigns will be tightened. 2nd of April prime minister Okada is replaced by Hirota.
During April we also saw a small rebellion in the Kumamoto region, this was swiftly taken care of by nearby cavalry.

Early May a railroad improvement programme was proposed. The cost in resources and money was prohibitive but thanks to a very positive trade balance earlier during 1936 the programme was initiated.

This will increase industrial efficiency and supply throughput in the empire. However it cost us nearly all available gold reserves, half of our strategic metal reserves and over 90% of the army supplies will be consumed.

We can already see the fruits of our efforts. Industrial capacity has risen to an unprecedented output of 160. While this has put an extreme demand on raw materials we are able to keep the industry fed with resources and even start improving our strategic reserves through an extensive international trade network. Our factories provide goods to the market and we buy raw materials in return.

For "administrative reasons" my chief of staff tell me reorganizing, refitting or retraining a unit can only be done in the home islands... these constant delays for purely administrative reasons are infuriating.

Despite this refitting and reorganization of the IJA is ramping up to full speed by mid July with a constant stream of new brigades.

Mid August 1936 I am appalled when reading through the draft for a 2nd London Naval treaty.
This treaty will only benefit the US, UK and other major naval powers.

The empire of Japan will not sign such a treaty that is clearly aimed to limit Japans right to protect imperial interests.

In September I was approached with a plan for a new monumental building in Tokyo.

The new Imperial Seat of government will improve our leadership, territorial pride, national unity and the ruling party support. While I do no think much for the thoughts of simple peasants, it is important to unify the people.

Our stocks of strategic materials are constantly improving and the past 3 months have seen the industrial capacity improve by another 8 points to 168. The rest of the world recognizes the superior quality of Japanese producs and are standing in line to trade.

By October our raw oil reserves are up to 13000 barrels and fuel reserves are at 42000 barrels. We are also improving our metal reserves but are the ever increasing demand from the growing industrial sector means we are still at a deficit when it comes to rare materials. Industrial capacity is now up to 188.

The last quarter of 1936 is far from uneventful, full focus is given to the rebuilding of the IJA and improving industrial capacity. We pour resources into self improvement of the empire as a whole, research into improved education is prioritized along with industrial research to ensure Japan will be amongst the world leaders in these areas.

National unity and confidence in the empire is at an all time high, the empire is preparing for the future, the people can sense it!

Zukoprince · Dec 27, 2015

subbed

just_a_beaver · Dec 27, 2015

Subbed! This will be extremely interesting. Do you have any plans for Japan? Or is it just "Kill China!"? Just watch out for British India when you get around to it, if you don't have enough units stationed there, you will have trouble.

Doxs_Roxs · Dec 27, 2015

Part 3: Early 1937

1937 is started with a continued focus on building up the IJA.

It is decided to invest the overproduction within the industry into new infrastructure projects.
While this will cost us 5% of available IC it is important as a long term investment.

Our navy is not forgotten, we are starting the naval enhancement to make the japanese navy the best in the world.

During February we see a rise in party popularity giving us further leadership and unity bonuses.
By this time the huge investments in major programmes have dropped the available industrial capacity to 163.
While it is not ideal the long term investments will pay off later. This includes state funded factories in the Harbin and Niigata regions, while it is expensive it is vital for the future.

The private industry is not idle, I just received news of a company starting up in the optics industry. We will make use of this knowledge in our armaments research.

By June our navy rearmament plans are progressing with our first reactivation, the Hiei will be made combat ready once again!

I have also been getting reports from the Kwantung army HQ that the Chinese are restless and testing our defences.
To counter this we have started to reinforce the border with newly reorganized divisions from Japan.

Doxs_Roxs · Dec 27, 2015

Caudillo Franco said:
Subbed! This will be extremely interesting. Do you have any plans for Japan? Or is it just "Kill China!"? Just watch out for British India when you get around to it, if you don't have enough units stationed there, you will have trouble.

Thanks! I have far reaching plans for the Japanese Empire. Ill get to that in later posts. However, I can tell you it did not quite turn out the way I had initially planned.
I have played a few years further then these posts, currently Im posting to catch up so to speak

just_a_beaver · Dec 27, 2015

Doxs_Roxs said:
Thanks! I have far reaching plans for the Japanese Empire. Ill get to that in later posts. However, I can tell you it did not quite turn out the way I had initially planned.
I have played a few years further then these posts, currently Im posting to catch up so to speak

No problem, and yet again, nice post.

I can't wait to see how things turn out.

Doxs_Roxs · Dec 28, 2015

Part 4: Treachery!

On the 1st of July the despicable Chinese take the opportunity to attack our almost unguarded border. This started as a small incident where they fired on our border guards who defended themselves.
Despite earlier warnings in July our troops on the way to strengthen the Chinese border did not arrive in time. Thus the only troops in the area are two cavalry divisions with just under 2500 men.

The republic of China and their communist allies Shanxi attack all along the border and there is nothing our border guards can do to stop them.

The Empire of Japan is now at WAR! The armed forces are mobilized! We will strike back!

One of the first decisions made is to switch Japan to a war economy. This boosts industrial output further to 183.
Previously ignored upgrades for existing divisions are now prioritzed. Supplies production is now ignored in favour of reinforcing our troops up to maximum strenght, our troops will live of our strategic reserves for now to enable a high percentage of the industrial production to remain allocated to new units and equipment.

By the 15th of July the communists have advanced far onto Japanese soil. We are shipping in new troops as fast as we can via the port of Huludao and hope to set up a defensive front along natural defences such as the river and hills, marked in red on the map. Unfortunately the port is undersized for this type of operation and our forces struggle with a lack of supplies. This will probably be solved by shipping in supplies from other ports in the area but that will take time.

The first unit to arrive in the region is the 1st Infantry Corps, consisting mostly of reserves but numbering 52' men. They are not yet up to full strength but will reinforce on their way. The lack of experience is made up for by the fact that they are equipped with tank destroyers giving them an armor advantage.

This is one of very few units with armored elements since the Empire is short on oil reserves and will need most of the available fuel for the navy and airforce.
The second unit to arrive is the 2nd Infantry Corps with another 6 divisions. They are of similar composition with the exception for the tank destroyers that are replaced by armored cars.

The Imperial forces in the area are thus 12 divisions that will number over 130' men, this should be enough to hold the defensive position until a counter offensive can be mounted.

Doxs_Roxs · Dec 28, 2015

Part 5: Gaining control

The date is July 15 1937. The Chinese are pushing onto Imperial soil.
But the Empire of Japan is not weak. The armed forces consist of 647 brigades that are now reinforcing to full strength.
The airforce consist of 42 aerial brigades and the navy 132 ships.

Current capital ships are as follows:
Battleships: Fuso, Yamashiro, Ise, Hyuga, Nagato, Mutsu
Battlecruisers: Kongo, Haruna, Kirishima (some classify these as battleships as well)
Carriers: Akagi, Kaga, Ryujo (light), Hosho (light)
Carriers Hiryu and Soryu are almost completed and will be available at moments notice. Zuiho (light) is about 60% completed but not prioritized at the moment.

Despite this we cannot rest until the communist assault is under control. We are shocked to hear of another attack the 16th of July. The Chinese are invading the Naha province in Okinawa!
We immidiately dispatch naval bombers, this is a clear indication that the Chinese have pre planned the attack on Japan!

A taskforce consisting of the battleships Mutsu & Nagato escorted by two heavy cruisers and four light cruisers is quickly assembled and sent with orders to intercept and sink the communist fleet. The fleet is commanded by Mikawa and contact is made at midnight the 18th of July.

Our ships are not yet at optimum efficiency and have not trained together prior to this assignment as can be seen by their low organization. Mostly due to the hasty departure from Japan.
Fire is exchanged on and off all night combined with aerial bombing.

At 9:00 hours in the morning the nights effort finally pay off with the sinking of the Chinese light cruiser Ning Hai.
This is followed by their light cruiser Hai Chen and a destroyer before they withdraw toward the Chinese coastline.

The Chinese fleet is intercepted again near the coast but manage to slip away without loosing more ships.
Rest assured, this is only the beginning. We will strike back with force!

Ships are dispatched to intercept Chinese shipping all along their coastline. Effectively cutting off China from naval trade.

After failing to provoke more open sea battles we resort to port strikes on the blockaded Chinese fleet.
We finally succeed in sinking the light cruisers Ying Swei and Tung Chi at port in Fuzhou on the 27th of July.

A heavy cruiser, Hai Chi is also sunk on the 30th of July, further crippling the Chinese navy.

On the northern front we have managed to stop the Chinese attack at the earlier indicated defensive line. However, the counter attack is not yet ready. It will be a nasty surprise for the communists...

By the end of July crude oil reserves are up to 15500 barrels in addition to over 42000 barrels of fuel.
The increased industrial production mean we are still at a deficit when it comes to energy, metal and rare materials. However, gold reserves are up to over 7200 and increasing by the day due to beneficial trade agreements. We will use this surplus to purchase more needed materials to keep the war machine going.

DasGleiche · Dec 28, 2015

Interesting. Will be cool to see how you do.

One thing though - setting no modifiers for the Axis and very hard difficulties for the Allies/Soviets will utterly, utterly ruin Germany and Italy. Seriously. They're as good as dead. So it's gonna be you on your own...

I would also have recommended you go for Farm Mechanisation and University as your first project/monumental building, but hey ho

just_a_beaver · Dec 28, 2015

Interesting to see how you counter the Chinese threat. Will you encircle them as a whole now that they've moved quite far inland?

Doxs_Roxs · Dec 28, 2015

DasGleiche said:
Interesting. Will be cool to see how you do.

One thing though - setting no modifiers for the Axis and very hard difficulties for the Allies/Soviets will utterly, utterly ruin Germany and Italy. Seriously. They're as good as dead. So it's gonna be you on your own...

I would also have recommended you go for Farm Mechanisation and University as your first project/monumental building, but hey ho

Haha, I know that now, but I didnt know that when I started. Was a bit surprised at the stacking penalties from hard/hard as well.

Im not sure how the monumental buildings work but I dont think I have been given a free choice since I cannot remember anything about a university. Or maybe I just missed it, I have had a very hard time understanding what the outcome of my choices are. Usually its impossible to tell what the exact bonuses will be from in game information.

Doxs_Roxs · Dec 28, 2015

Caudillo Franco said:
Interesting to see how you counter the Chinese threat. Will you encircle them as a whole now that they've moved quite far inland?

Tell you now would spoil the surprise, Ill get to that in the coming updates

just_a_beaver · Dec 28, 2015

Doxs_Roxs said:
Haha, I know that now, but I didnt know that when I started. Was a bit surprised at the stacking penalties from hard/hard as well.

Im not sure how the monumental buildings work but I dont think I have been given a free choice since I cannot remember anything about a university. Or maybe I just missed it, I have had a very hard time understanding what the outcome of my choices are. Usually its impossible to tell what the exact bonuses will be from in game information.

Ya, the Black ICE Player Guide page should help you out with some unique building concerns.

just_a_beaver · Dec 28, 2015

Doxs_Roxs said:
Tell you now would spoil the surprise, Ill get to that in the coming updates

Then the suspense continues.

Doxs_Roxs · Dec 28, 2015

Part 6: Counterattack!

Caudillo Franco said:
Ya, the Black ICE Player Guide page should help you out with some unique building concerns.

Its not on their webpage... And I did not find it until much later after some VERY extensive searching...

just_a_beaver · Dec 28, 2015

Doxs_Roxs said:
Part 6: Counterattack!

Its not on their webpage... And I did not find it until much later after some VERY extensive searching...

Damn. That's quite unfortunate.

Doxs_Roxs · Dec 28, 2015

Part 6: Counterattack!

The date is August 8 and we now take the fight to the enemy. The 1st Marine Corps lead the charge to take the ports in south east China. Fuzhou and Xiamen are the first targets.

It might be worth noting though that despite my orders for the troops to invade Xiamen, they made landfall in Quanzhou instead. This caused major delays and risked the entire unit since it was cut off from supplies.
I have contemplated court martial over this but found the commanders to valuable to kill them after each invasion.

I have since learned that the only way to ensure my orders are followed is to order the landing craft to move to the coast but not invade, and then give each marine division direct orders for where they are to attack.

I have included the marine corps general setup above, the corps unit is lacking transportation since I am limited to 7 brigades per division and corps command take one spot. However, this will not limit them much since they are supposed to conduct naval assaults and let the regular infantry take over from there.
As always, units are created with a low fuel/supply footprint, thus horses will be prioritzed before trucks.

You might also note that the unit is attacking even though it lacks the proper equipment, the armored cars brigade is not completed, the cars will be shipped to the unit as soon as they leave the factories on the Japanese islands.
This is the reality of war.

As we start attacking the enemy initiatives are brought forward from the home front that aim to help the war effort by filling our stocks of strategic materials.

After careful consideration I reject them all. This would have caused dissent in the population and they are already working hard. It might also be worth noting that new trade agreements have been secured that will improve the resource situation. Japan is now stocking up on all strategic material reserves despite increased demands from the war industry.

It might also come as a surprise for you to hear that the northern defensive front has been the scene of some very hard fighting. Even with 12 divisions and defensive positions on the high ground and along rivers we are hard pressed with several units nearing the breaking point. (huuge difference from the normal games I tried earlier)

However, this has also given the superior Japanese soldiers the chance to prove themselves. And they have!

Excelllent! New veteran command brigades have been created in Tokyo. These highly experienced units provide and higher combined arms bonus then a normal command brigade. These will be issued to key units.

Reinforcement to full strength is now more or less completed and the Kwantung army group now number over 750 000 men!

Doxs_Roxs · Dec 28, 2015

Part 7: The typhoon!

During September Hong Kong was struck by a typhoon.

This is a great anolgue to the great counterattack the Empire of Japan is unleashing on communist China!
During September landing after landing is performed to turn the tables, secure ports and isolate the Chinese troops.

On this tactical overview you can see the current borders and our landing sites.

The 1st Imperial Japanese Army commanded by Kawabe is assigned to the northern front with orders to counter attack!
The counter attack will proceed through the forests along the old front and head northwest to cut off all enemy forces in a huge pocket.

Kawabe is a highly skilled commander with an independent rating of 4, he is notable for the following traits:

Order of the Sacred Treasure, giving increased experience gain and lower supply consumption
Offensive Doctrine, an affinity for offensive operations
Engineer, a bonus to river crossings and attack speed

As can be seen by this detailed map he is assigned command of the 1st and 2nd infantry corps already at the front, he is also assigned the 5th infantry corps for the planned encirclement of the communist forces in the area.
While he is in command of the 4th infantry corps as well, they where forced to conduct emergency reinforcement operations further south and are therefore not available yet. You might also note that the marine brigade under direct command by Kawabe is not yet operational and without their equipment. They will be reinforced bit by bit as equipment and men are available from the main islands.

Also assigned to this front and operating from the airbase in Dalian is Fukuis fighter division with 3 units, Ozawas fighter/bomber division with 3 units, and Nanases close air support division with 6 dive bomber units. This is crowding the current airports in the region, however the first expansion to the airports have already been completed and it is already on its way to level 8. The next two expansions are being built with high priority.

Naval fire support is provided by 6 old coastal battleships. There are tentative plans to convert them to railroad artillery units for fortress assault operations at later dates, against modern forces at sea they would be of limited use.

The first counter attack was a fantastic success, and resulted in a victory parade!

However, I must note that the Chinese only lost due to overwhelming force with well equipped infantry supported by aerial and naval bombardment. Despite this they fought on until they had no organization left at all. I will get back to their fighting spirit later.

The central front is tasked with capturing the enemy capital, Nanjing! If they cannot capture the capital through a frontal assault, they are to surround it and force a surrender.

After the initial naval assaults by the marines we immidiately started landing troops. The 1st specialized light infantry corps landed to the north in Nantong with orders to advance and attack Nanjing from the north. With a strength of 45 000 men over 6 divisions they should be able to handle the task.

1st IJA, 4th infantry corps was reassigned to this area to help bolster the attack in face of the extensive defensive fortifications we encountered during the initial assault. They made landfall in Shanghai and proceeded inland with orders to take out the enemy forces occupying the heavily fortified region to the southwest. This is no easy task and is the site of a very drawn out and bloody battle. No plan survives contact with the enemy, and we adapted.

Naval bombardment was supplied by IJN Fuse and Yamashiro off the coast of China. I also have the light carriers Ryujo and Hosho providing aerial support.

The southern front consists of a mostly mountains and hills. This proved to be an extreme challenge.

In overall command is the 2nd Imperial Japanese Army commanded by Ando. As you can see his division is not yet assigned the full contingent. Additional brigades will be shipped from the Imperial islands as soon as they are made available.

In an attempt to sieze Xiamen and get supplies to my earlier marine unit that landed in the wrong province I repeated my folly once again and ended up with another marine unit outside the city but on the south side. This is where I learned the very important lesson of direct command.

You will also note that we achieved only 59% attack efficiency against the Chinese despite attack with 2 marine divisions from each side and landing from the sea with a third marine division. This was despite naval bombardment from the battleships Ise and Hyuga providing a 50% penalty to the defenders.
Supporting this attack was also Japanese aircraft stationed in Gaoxiong. 2 medium bomber units commanded by Asari, 3 light bomber units commanded by Takamine, 3 dive bomber units commanded by Kuribayashi and 3 fighter units commanded by Jonouchi. In total 11 aerial units.

Now that I have showed you parts of the plan, I feel compelled to show you the next strategic steps in the plan.
Imperial command has since long realized the limited manpower of Japan cannot stand up to the communists in a war of attrition. Thus we must look for other ways of winning this war. The conclusion is that attack is the best defence, we will focus our attacks to achieve local superiority in numbers and through the use of naval and aerial support we will strike deep into the heart of our enemy.
Finally we will encircle and destroy them:

Imperial Japan Black ICE - Hard/Hard

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