The Sun rises in Japan - Empire of Japan HPP AAR

[SKOTy]

Hello and welcome to my second Hearts of Iron 3 AAR!

As my first AAR here ended with success and nuking multiple American cities I've decided to write another one as many of you enjoyed my previous AAR Who said Nazis can't have nukes
From all the countries I've wanted to play I've chosen Japan (but don't worry, others I was mentioning in my German AAR thread will come - I definitely want to make SU with WW3 and Italian AAR). This time I will play at hard difficulty again with HPP mod.

There are some obvious reasons why I've chosen to play Empire of Japan. First of all playing Axis countries is most entertaining for me and Empire of Japan provides many opportunities. 2nd Sino-Japanese war, campaign in Indochina and east Indies are one of most thrilling campaigns (especially in HPP). Another reason why I've chosen Japan is that I love naval battles and naval campaigns.

The AAR itself will be again picture heavy mainly with descriptions what's going on as you've seen in my previous one.

Start date: 1936
Difficulty: hard
Player control: all
Country: Empire of Japan
Mod: Historical Plausibility Project
Update frequency: At the weekends, I will try to provide more updates if I have some spare time

Game rules:

• no cheating, reloading etc.
• console is good for fixing random mess
• no extremely gamey stuff

Game goals

• Win 2nd Sino-Japanese war
• Obliterate allied presence in Asia and Pacific
• No nukes this time
• Help Axis as much as I can

 

[SKOTy]

Days before war

Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: Forging the Axis
Chapter 3: Last days of peace

2nd Sino-Japanese war

Chapter 4: 2nd Sino-Japanese war, part 1
Chapter 5: 2nd Sino-Japanese war, part 2
Chapter 6: 2nd Sino-Japanese war, part 3
Chapter 7: 2nd Sino-Japanese war, part 4
Chapter 8: 2nd Sino-Japanese war, part 5

Chapter 9: Moments of peace

2nd World war

Chapter 10: Fall of Singapore
Chapter 11: Fall of Burma
Chapter 12: Advancing further
Chapter 13: The escalation
Chapter 14: Report on the state of the Empire
Chapter 15: Report on the state of the Imperial army
Chapter 16: The advance
Chapter 17: Fall of France
Chapter 18: Amongst the great powers
Chapter 19: Operation Barbarossa, part 1
Chapter 20: Operation Barbarossa, part 2
Chapter 21: Operation Barbarossa, part 3
Chapter 22: Operation Barbarossa, part 4
Chapter 23: Tora Tora
Chapter 24: Fall of Pearl Harbor
Chapter 25: Preparations

The invasion to US

Chapter 26: The invasion, part 1
Chapter 27: The invasion, part 2
Chapter 28: The invasion, part 3
Chapter 29: The invasion, part 4
Chapter 30: The invasion, part 5
Chapter 31: The invasion, part 6
Chapter 32: The invasion, part 7
Chapter 33: The invasion, part 8
Chapter 34: The invasion, part 9
Chapter 35: The invasion, part 10
Chapter 36: The invasion, part 11
Chapter 37: The invasion, part 12
Chapter 38: The invasion, part 13
Chapter 39: The invasion, part 14
Chapter 40: The invasion, part 15
Chapter 41: The invasion, part 16
Chapter 42: The invasion, part 17
Chapter 43: The invasion, part 18
Chapter 44: The invasion, part 19
Chapter 45: The invasion, part 20

 

[Maggix]

Your first step should be deleting the entire Japanese army. HPP users with OCD will know what I mean...

 

[guillec87]

I liked yout last AAR as Germany, so count me in

 

[Ikarases]

Your first step should be deleting the entire Japanese army. HPP users with OCD will know what I mean...

It's called variety

 

[SKOTy]

Your first step should be deleting the entire Japanese army. HPP users with OCD will know what I mean...

I've reorganized whole damn OOB and the game has CRASHED!

 

[vector1]

SKOTy, I recommend this Army Restructuring Tool

http://art.abross.de/

Basically, explode all your divisions, save, reload and use the division maker to create new divisions/rename everything.

Mass demote your generals and selectively promote the traits you want, then reassign in game.

The main thing left to do in game is creating HQs and grouping them up.

I already used it in my HPP JAP SP games to reorganise my OOB before china.

 

[Belgiumruler]

subbed!

 

[Jagdpnzr]

Three cheers for SKOTy!

 

[SKOTy]

It looks like I've forgot to mention main reason why I am playing Japan...

[video=youtube;hPjSTAW7bpM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPjSTAW7bpM[/video]

Best song of HoI3 soundrack

 

[Ikarases]

It looks like I've forgot to mention main reason why I am playing Japan...

[video=youtube;hPjSTAW7bpM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPjSTAW7bpM[/video]

Best song of HoI3 soundrack

I would've turn the music in HoI 3 on, yet the OST is just too short and would've driven me crazy in no time. I wouldn't be exaggerating if I wanted a 100+ hours of HoI sountrack, as this game really needs it

 

[Belgiumruler]

I would've turn the music in HoI 3 on, yet the OST is just too short and would've driven me crazy in no time. I wouldn't be exaggerating if I wanted a 100+ hours of HoI sountrack, as this game really needs it

mod it

 

[Ikarases]

mod it

Winamp is telling me that I have 30 hours worth of music, yet even that isn't enough

 

[GreatUberGeek]

Subbed! I liked the soundtrack, until I heard the random singer. Basically ruined it.

 

[darthkommandant]

Any chance of seeing mr Yamato?

 

[volksmarschall]

Good luck! I am also interested in seeing this mod playout (I myself like "semi-historical" games, i.e., you win by being the strongest faction, but not necessarily march to conquer the four corners of the earth). Looking forward to this.

Cheers!

 

[SKOTy]

1. Introduction


In the first update I would like to evaluate my situation and provide you details about day zero of the campaign.

Diplomatic situation: I've started alignment to the Axis from the day 0 and I've also fired Formation of Mengkukuo event to give me another puppet. No other interesting diplomatic options or national decisions are available to me at the moment.

Distribution of leadership: I've decided that the best for Japan would be to focus on establishing reliable spy base for counterintelligence and boosting NU and ruling party support which will be achieved in relatively small time period. Another more leadership demanding project will be raising officer ratio to 150%. Until officer ratio is bellow 150% only most crucial industry projects will be researched - and I've failed there a bit as I've started research of anti-aircraft guns instead of supply production.

Here you can see my cabinet. Few changes have been made there: Hayashi Senjuro was named foreign minister for the rulling party support bonus, Ogawa Gutaro was appointed as Armament minister for resource bonus as Japan is in negative numbers in every resource. Kawada Kakichi became minister of security for 5% leadership bonus as leadership is precious, especially in HPP! Machida Chuji was appointed as head of intelligence for the 5% research efficiency which will allow to research more outstanding stuff. Last personal change was appointing Inaba Satoru as chief of the army for the reduced supply consumption.
I am not sure what to do with Chief of the staff, I will probably switch him for attack reinforce chance guy.

Spy priorities, no actions apart from domestic ones will be taken as spies are too damn expensive in HPP and I don't want to waste leadership on spies.

I was able to fire mobilize for war decision which is needed for enacting higher laws so some higher laws were enacted on day 0 including war economy which will allow Japan to reach Major power international status and thus more leadership (I am missing two IC as you need 100 IC and I have only 98 due to hard difficulty).

The navy is gaining influence, one of nice features of HPP. In Japan there was struggle between IJN and IJA for prestige and influence and HPP reflects it. Based on much IC are you spending on what you may gain modifier which speeds up land/naval construction and boots organization of more prestigious part of your army while getting negligible decrease of organization in the less prestigious part of army.

Doctrines: one of these two was a pretty tough decision, the other one was no-brainer. Infiltration focus was the no-brainer here, I cannot imagine better doctrine for Japanese troops which will be fighting in most hostile areas with worst infrastructure, mountains, swamps, jungles all of that with miserable infrastructure.
And I've spent thinking about half and hour about the other. I was pretty sure that I don't want human wave, Japan is no SU or China in terms of manpower and military tactics. Grand battleplan? I don't want trench warfare and all of that so question turned to be: Blitzkrieg or Superior firepower? I've spent a lot time thinking about this and in the end I've chosen blitzkrieg, it might sound odd for Japan but I hate slow meatgrinders and all other doctrines seems to favour it so I've chosen this one. I also prefer very aggressive gameplay with quick and decisive battles and further exploitation of enemy so I've chosen the one which suits my gameplay most.

Second day Japan gained major power status due to increased IC via war economy and all newly gained leadership was transferred to officer production.

You can see that Japan is running deficit in every resource which is needed to fuel economy.
Upgrades and reinforcement will be done before firing Marco Polo.
Finishing of initial production of ships is prioroty right now and I've also put 20 horse towed support brigade into production queue as I want every division to be equipped with support brigade.
I am also withdrawing all guard/militia divisions from Manchuria and pacific islands to Japan to upgrade guards/militias to regular infantry brigades (some guard divisions stayed at strategic islands with airports like Truk to guard them - this also allowed me to reduce number of convoys needed).
Most of IC spent before Marco Polo will be spent on support brigades for every infantry division and upgrades of guards I would also like to have air group or two of medium bombers to supply Chinese with yummy Japanese bombs.
After I fire Marco Polo I will dedicate most of IC to IJN, you will se Mr. Yamato in action

 

[red_KLG]

This decision between doctrines also tears me apart everytime I play HPP. It is also the main reason why I suck so much in HPP. I usually choose doctrines which reflect my perception of what I should do, but build different units and implement a different style than the one that corresponds to the doctrines I 've chosen = massive fail in playing HPP.

 

[guillec87]

an interesting choise you have made about the doctrines, let's see if you are able to exploit it in the fields of China

 

[Rotten Venetic]

Ditto about doctrines; I usually don't even stick to one path through the game. I believe this is also a horrible idea, but hey.

Edit: I imagine he took Blitzkrieg for the combat events and most of all for the attack delay reduction, to seize the Chinese by their belts as it were, and allow them no breather.