• We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.
Nice update there, once again. Like the new increase in your dialogue lately.

Why would you move all those CAS squadrons to that new field? Org regain for those squadrons will be almost nonexistant, especially right now when the airfields own organisation is very low.
 
Remble, I noticed that Jilin is empty of Soviet forces. If you could move forces into Jilin, you can protect Xinjing and plug up the gap in the line between Harbin and the uppermost Korean province. Or is there a reason why Jilin is empty?

As for this operational naming contest, I propose Operation Blue Heart. The blue heart is the shape of Mengkukuo.
 
He's allowing the province to stay Soviet so the AI continues to funnel forces in so he can continue to push them back and inflict casualties on them, particularly with his dive-bombers.

Correct me if I'm wrong.
 
alan_le_cowboy - Your welcome. You seem to notice just about everything that goes on which helps me to ensure that I do check I am being consistant, for which I thank you. Operation Komodo doesn't strictly follow my naming policy but as its for a specific reason you shall get your wish and that will be the next operation :)

Fgorginator - At least the Brazilians still have a Battleship unilke the USN :)

Bloodlance - Thank you and welcome. Your AAR looks interesting and I am following along. Don't expect too many comments from me though as I am fairly well set as a lurker more than a commenter :D

BobaFett696 - Thank you. I was a little surprised the airfield appeared as, like many others, I did not think the AI knew how to build them.

thatguy - You came very close to having one operation. Operation Subtle did not quite have the right ring to it however :p

Lascars - Banzai and Imamura might have to defend the jungles of Kauai for a while as marines are the best for the job. Something crops up in the next update which causes a few small problems.

Inner Circle - Manchukuo are doing a fine job and its one reason why it should be clear as to why I didn't puppet China. There is already an 11 sized army created by Manchukuo in Ulan Hot and a fair number of the troops in Harbin are also Manchurian. Imagine the army China could throw out under similar circumstances. Its a little amusing that you said Divine Wind as I was in a guild in another game called Ethereal Zephyr which means the same thing depending on how you translate it.

Mythos1978 - Nike is a fairly well known brand name as well which sort of makes it unusable.

Murmurandus - Lucky for you I didn't want to call an operation Operation Stuff. Welcome back :)

Kanitatlan - I can't think of any time I have seen them build an airbase before either. We know they build AA and forts so it must be possible for them to build other stuff as well.

Sokraates - I miss some updates too :p I am a little undecided if I approve of that airbase being built. I certainly would not have done it as its far to easy for the Soviets to take it. I can hold it for as long as possible and in the mean time my CAS can rain down death from it. Ektoras correctly states that it was a 25% penalty so I gained 5% in upgrade times.

stnylan - I try to cover most things that are not normally covered and it does give a chance to add some dialogue between people we don't see too much of on occasion. Did you create the word 'dealth' in the hopes of it being named as an operation? :D

Ektoras, cjwet - Thank you :)

Thurak - Unfortunately the bombers are receiving more damage than the Subs in Somoa which is a little bit uncalled for. They will need to take frequent breaks in between bombing runs. Well the troops in Sinkiang do have a HQ but its in Lanzhou. Higashikuni decided to stay out of Sinkiang himself as he expected to lose it fairly quickly. I can spare one for India easily enough as I have one in Beiping doing nothing right now. Still leaves me with some spares though. I won't disband anything unless I have to.

No combined arms formations yet no. You may have noticed that all the Japanese forces in Sinkiang and western Mongolia are in corps formations and all the ones in Manchuria are singles. I am using Manchuria as a training ground for my commanders, particularly the lower level ones with defensive traits. Combined arms bonus would certainly help a little as I could split one armour with two infantry to get the bonus. I don't like grouping tanks with infantry much but I may do it.

robou - The CAS are going to make quite a mess until I lose Harbin. I still think I will lose it eventually.

germanpeon - Infantry are always nice to have but I will forgive them the airfield on this occasion. They had gained some org after flying back from the Pacific and are not at zero after moving to Harbin. I have a limit on my aircraft of 5%. They don't fly below that number.

Ruodnane - They were very determined to build the airfield and as I have said I am not sure I approve all that much.

Maj. von Mauser - I like adding dialogue on occasion as I have been. It does slow down my updates as I have to think a bit more but its not too much of a problem. The CAS spend a fair amount of time grounded as they only fly one mission a day. They gain just over 1 org a day and are force rested until 0000 hours over night. I have to upgrade them which means I am currently manually targetting all my CAS at 0000 hours and manually stop them flying at night. It is not exactly fun doing that for over a month but I can't let them just sit there doing nothing.

Nathan Madien, Metroid17 - Jilin is empty for a couple of reasons. If I move troops into it they will be kicked out immediately as I can only send six divisions. Even if they withdraw on contact I still lose some manpower. The Soviets don't appear to be interested in moving more troops in there which means I can more or less safely ignore the threat it poses. If they moved a large army into Jilin I would probably have no choice but to abandon Harbin so I won't make the AI look at Jilin if I can avoid it. Kind of an exploit if you want to look at it that way I suppose. I could advance into Jilin to make the AI see where it should be advancing I guess. Even though v1.3a is supposed to have improved the AI with regards to empty areas it still doesn't do that good a job of it.

It seems I was not quite clear on operational names and how I arrive at them for which I apologise. I will give an example.

Panzer6 said:
Now I must ask, if you get the impulse to do more of these tests, please don't make me search the whole thing for it (which could have an extra 20-50 pages by then), it's tedious enough.

Panzer6 replied to the last contest using this as part of the reply. The two words highlighted were both suitable names for an operation and Tedious was chosen by both Panzer6 and myself for the name. I don't think the wording he used was in any way deliberate but thats how I picked a name.

In the beginning operational names were supplied by something Hirohito said in meetings, this progressed to how I chose the one for Panzer6 and similarly for previous operations. You don't need to directly supply a name, which is always a one word name by the way, just reply as you normally do to updates and when a word jumps out at me I will select it and let you guys know.

You can of course feel free to embelish your normal replies to try and influence the decision :) My replies above to thatguy, Murmurandus and stnylan are somewhat reflective on how I would pick a name. They just made normal replies to events and the words I picked from their replies, which I won't use, but I replied in that way to demonstrate how I go about it.

Oh and no one has mentioned the word that I already have in mind for an operation and as I said before it is highly unlikely to be guessed at but could easily crop up in a reply one of you make.

There will be an update a little later today once I have finished editting the screenshots and writing it, which I am sarting on right now. I just wanted to clear up the operation naming thing early :)
 
The Bear

11





1200 July 9th 1946.
North China Army Headquarters. Lanzhou, China.

Field Marshall Higashikuni looked pensively at the reports stacked on his desk. Nothing out of the ordinary was contained within the messages from his forces throughout China and India although the enemy had made one advance which had been expected, even wanted.​

jul9461200gr1.jpg

The Dive bombers operating from Urumqi had been performing to their usual high standard and had reduced the defenders in Gulja to a mere four divisions from the original nine. He changed their orders to disrupt the enemy organisation as the remaining troops were dug in. They would be asked to leave after a little softening up had occured.​

jul9461300gr1.jpg

In India two Allied divisions had finally arrived in Karachi where they were greeted by five Tactical bomber squadrons. One bomber wing was undergoing repairs and would wait for those to complete before joining the fray. A counter attack could also be expected in this area as Japanese troops had already withdrawn and would rest a little first. The capture of Karachi had spurred the remaining Allied troops in Persia to begin moving forwards again.​

jul11460100gr1.jpg

Higashikuni ordered General Yamashita to remove the Soviet forces in Gulja on July 11th. Some organisational damage had already been inflicted by the bombers which would join the battle shortly. Even the rain would not help the Red Army troops for long and the battle was quickly over with the minimum of casualties on both sides. Needless to say the Dive bombers were ordered to begin their more destructive approach on their next attack run.​





0000 July 10th 1946.
Kwantung Army Headquarters. Harbin, Manchukuo.

The move of the Tactical bombers to the north west of Harbin not only allowed another group of enemy soldiers to be bombed but it also provided additional intelligence on the Soviet armies in the area.​

jul10460000gr1.jpg

The bombers had chosen to bomb the retreating troops in Hailar and reported no massed enemy concentrations to the north of the province. Just because there didn't seem to be that many didn't mean they were only small armies and these could easily contain a large amount of troops.​





0000 July 10th 1946.
Industry Offices. Tokyo, Japan.

Minister Ginjiro had a few high priority things to deal with but some were more important than others. Civilian requirements, current production and supplies were his chief concerns with reinforcements not far behind.​

jul10460000gr2.jpg

This left upgrades. The completion of research into the new Close Air Support variant, as well as the grounding of a large part of Japan's Interceptor force for badly needed upgrades, had placed a much larger burden on the resources allocated in this area. Some aircraft were of a higher priority and would claim the lions share of the upgrade pool. Close Air Support aircraft were top of the list and all had been prioritised as a result.​





0200 July 12th 1946.
BB Division 1 Flagship. IJN Yamashiro, Maui.

No enemy fleets had been detected for more than a week since Hawaii was lost by the Americans. Ozawa had expected a furious counter attack against the islands which had so far not materialised. Admiral Toyoda had managed to send a high priority hastily written report as his fleet, CA Division 2, got itself involved in a rather messy engagement. Ozawa would be forced to react to the report as the United States Navy tried to shake off its miriad of defeats.​

jul12460200gr1.jpg

Toyoda knew he was in big trouble as soon as the reports informed him that two American Carriers were far to close to CA Division 2. Had it not been daylight he would not be overly concerned, as it was though he was fairly sure his fleet was not going to survive this encounter intact. He had no options open to him for any slight of hand as Admiral Sprague ordered his two Carriers, USS Wasp and USS Saratoga, to begin their strikes.

Toyoda did the only thing he could. Six ships and flotillas, led by the veteran Light Carrier IJN Chitose, were ordered to flank speed and turned towards the approaching Carriers in the hope that they could close quickly enough to inflict some damage to the American Carrier Task Force.​

jul12460400gr1.jpg

After two hours Toyoda had been proven correct. He had already lost the Heavy Cruiser IJN Tone to strikes from USS Wasp but he had managed to close enough for his longer ranged ships to open fire in return. They had caused some severe damage to one of the enemy escorting Destroyer Divisions but had so far not done much else to harm Sprague's fleet.

After two more hours the Heavy Cruiser IJN Ashigara was also critically damaged but still afloat. Some minor damage had been inflicted on the Carrier USS Saratoga but nothing much else. Toyoda used his only other option.​

jul12460600gr2.jpg

He ordered his fleet north west towards the relative safety of the Central Marshalls where CA Division 1 could assist if required. The encounter had not been a disaster even though he had lost one of his Heavy Cruisers. Ozawa was not about to let two American Carriers terrorise his Heavy Cruiser fleets and gave the orders to retaliate.​

jul12460600gr3.jpg

BB Division 1 slipped from its anchorage in Maui and steamed south west towards the last reported enemy position. Japan's two Carrier fleets would remain in Pearl Harbour. Ozawa wanted to sink this enemy fleet with the minimal of fuss and his three Battleships and single Battlecruiser could accomplish that when the aircraft of the Imperial Japanese Air Force informed him of the enemies movements. Night was a wonderful thing to a Battlefleet Commander if he didn't have Aircraft Carriers to consider. Even if he chased the enemy down during daylight he was pretty confident that he would win but it would be more costly.

Some of his requests for more vessels had finally been approved in addition to the current production for Destroyers and Light Carriers.​

jul12460600gr4.jpg

New hulls began the process of being layed down in various ports throught Japan as the construction of Battlecruisers and Carriers began. All the ordered ships were more newer models than current variants at sea even if they were not strictly speaking completely modern. The Carrier Air Groups would begin construction nearer the time as they only required three months to build. Japanese production for Convoys and their Escorts was scrapped to compensate for the manpower required.​
 
0000 July 13th 1946.
BB Division 1 Flagship. IJN Yamashiro, In Transit.

Sightings of the American Carrier fleet did not take long to start arriving onboard IJN Yamashiro as Ozawa headed after the enemy.​

jul13460000gr1.jpg

Sprague had been spotted in the Southwest Marshalls heading towards Truk. The two Submarine Flotillas protecting the area headed for the safety of Truk's large port as they stood no chance against the Carriers if they found them.​

jul13462300gr1.jpg

By 2300 hours Sprague had altered course and had been sighted again. He had moved south into the Buka Passage instead. The resting Naval bombers in Fiji were ordered north to Guadalcanal to hunt this new prey.​

jul14462100gr1.jpg

Twenty four hours later the fast moving American fleet had moved further south into the West Gilberts. CA Division 3 had already been alerted and was steaming south west towards the New Hebreides to avoid contact with the superior enemy fleet. Ichimaru and Genda would only have a few hours to inflict damage to Sprague's ships and could only cause minimal losses.​





1400 July 14th 1946.
Kwantung Army Headquarters. Harbin, Manchukuo.

Terauchi had so far held his ground without much difficulty as his troops were mostly dug in and had been for some time. Only one area was still undergiong this process as it had been used offensively up until this point.​

jul14461400gr1.jpg

Itagaki would be called upon to defend Bayan Tumen again as another Soviet force tried to force him to withdraw. Casualties would be very one sided as the attack once again began after dusk and nowhere near dawn. The Soviets troops suffered another humiliating defeat before the sun could rise.

The rising sun did little to alter the damage the Soviets were suffering as it invariably led to Japanese aircraft being airborne. Mj. General Saboru had been resting his Interceptor wing in Pyongyang when they were scrambled.​

jul15460200gr1.jpg

Attacking a Japanese province with a large occupied airfield was nothing short of suicidal without fighter support. Saboru's experienced pilots inflicted massive casualties to the Dive bombers stupid enough to bomb the cavalry division protecting the province. Only half of the Soviet planes would make it back to base alive.

Japanese Dive bombers were starting to cause their own problems for the enemy as they continued the bombing campaign started by the Tactical bombers. They too would provide reconnaisance information for Terauchi who was already completely aware of one enemy build up.​

jul15460500gr3.jpg

Whilst the area to the east of Harbin looked to be only moderately filled with Soviet formations Heihe had suddenly become the focus of a huge concentration of Red Army troops. A very large part of that force was heading towards Qiqihar to the west of Harbin. The small temptation to attack the small enemy force in Jiamusi was quickly forgotten under such circumstances. Terauchi began to check his forces readiness a little more regularly as it looked like he was in for a visit or two in the near future.​

jul18460900gr1.jpg

Another report on July 18th was slightly more favourable as there did not appear to be too many more enemy troops north of Vladivostok. This could always change of course and would be monitored regularly.​





0400 July 17th 1946.
North China Army Headquarters. Lanzhou, China.

Japanese bombers had been up to their usual tricks and Higashikuni decided to add to the problems of the enemy in his region. The Allies would be the main focus on this occasion but the Red Army would not escape the attention of Japanese bombers.​

jul17460400gr1.jpg

Only one of the two Allied divisions was still alive in Karachi when General Abe was ordered to kick them out of the province. The presence of bombers overhead made the battle little more than a short firefight as the Mechanised division retreated back in to Persia. Higashikuni did not order an advance towards Karachi as he wanted to repeat this process on the still advancing Allied forces. The bombers would concentrate on destroying the fleeing troops for the time being.​

jul18460200gr1.jpg

Meanwhile the Dive bombers operating in Sinkiang were forced to change targets and attack Zhukov's massed forces in Altay province. Some of these troops were heading towards Gulja as a result of the Japanese attack. The four divisions that had retreated from that province never made it back to Soviet soil leaving the province temporarily vacant.​
 
Last edited:
I'm glad to see the hulls of new BC's being laid down!! :D The Imperial Navy will rule the oceans once these are complete. At least I hope, but with your superior tactics I'm shure I will be correct.

It must have been a suprise/shock to see those American CV's attack your CA fleet, too bad about the loss though.

Not much else to say, it was rather funny to see those Soviets attacking your Cavalry though.
 
BCs, bah! its all about naval aviation, baby. Carriers are what will secure the seas for Japan. Glad to see some more ships under construction.

I was wondering if perhaps you could show us how much your puppets are contributing to the war effort.

Also, if you havent already done so, I suggest replacing any Japanese island garrisoning divisions that arent too near the front lines with allied divisions so that you can make the most of your more advanced and efficient Japanese divisions on the front lines. For example, we all know that Colombo is impregnable so you might as well put an allied militia division there, if theyve got any.
 
hunt down those american carriers! they have to pay the price for sinking one of your vessels.

(super cool AAR by the way, keep up the good work)

I was wondering: what fleet would you be able to build by 1945 if you started in 1936 scenario as Japan, Remble?

edited: typo
 
Great job so far in both the Pacific and the USSR front. It looks very favourable, especially since the IJN is finally getting some brand new carriers!

Oh and as a side note, at the end of the update you write the allies "Motorized division retreated back" though the division in question was shown to be a mechanized division. Otherwise good luck in both the Pacific and on the mainland.
 
It is motorised, the vehicles they ride in have motors, do they not?
 
Last edited:
Maj. von Mauser said:
it is motorised, the vehicles they ride in have motors, do they not?

Personally, I hate the term air cavalry. What a contradiction in terms, regardless of the origins or developmental history.

I always keep a unit of an HQ attached to a Kav. that never sees combat - just to ride into a nations capital for annexation at noon or midnight (sometimes an empty escorted Transport aircraft will do - think Luftwaffe Eine). Back on topic, it is great to see a naval building programme beginning.
 
Ahh .. of course. How stupid of me. I forgot that you were even worse off before the slider move.

What pleasure to the eye to finally see some modern ships being built for the IJN. They may not be the most modern in the world, but considering the technological advantage of your enemies, they were long overdue. Not that the technological advantage had helped them, though. :) When will the first batches arrive?

The USA has grown rather bold, it seems. Another punitive expedition might prove a necessity to remind them of who controls the Pacific.

I think that the attacks on Pearl Harbor will start once the USA has managed to get enough transport fleets together. There seems to be a slight shortage of that type of vessel at the moment.