Game Report 190; Operation Setting Sun (v. Maphead)

Wary of over-committing to subs based on your feedback, I kept the destroyer balance high and moved all the small-power resources into the pacific.

20 bid went to; 1 UK sub, 1 US DD, 1 US Sub.

Dave has seen this rough plan many times, so he J1d, but also kept quite a bit of stuff close to Japan. All four pairs of aircraft on japan stayed near japan the entire game in order to enforce the standoff. The Japan expeditionary force did quickly grab the money, but this normally large southern navy was just 1 BB and a few DDs. All the carriers and initial units he had eventually had to form up in SZ 6 in the defense. Because a direct attack wasn’t in the cards, I began to route subs and a few destroyers down south via Queensland, and by J4 Dave had abandoned his sea push, and any attempt to go for India. He did have 2 factories and sent a few pulses of mechanized forces towards Moscow, but mostly these mopped up the Russian money in the east.

Eventually, my USA megafleet took carolines, then Philippines, and I placed blockers in all 5 zones from 19-25. Dave declined to risk attrition by picking these off—and SZ 23 ended up being the last space all my units could converge upon in the great pacific positional dance.

I held his income to 45-53, it takes a ton of units to reliable crush Japan’s income. I had about 20 subs and DD in his 7 southern convoy areas. He got the island spice bonus for 1 turn.
I initiated the culminating battle (Japan had 6 full CV, full scramble x2 bases, 2/6 kami hits, but lacked the DD hit soak stack this time)—and it was a grand overkill—Japan had only 2 bombers left, I survived with 1 (tipped) BB, 1 CA, 8 DD, 4 SUB with America.

None of the follow on forces were required to liquidate Japan. Anzac had 1 FIG 1 CA 1 TB 1 DD 4-5 SUBS to squat on SZ 19. The French brought 1 CA 2 DD. UK brought 1 DD, 1 TB, and 2 TT from Europe map. Given a few more turns, Japan would be a complete shambles, though that was just getting started when Germany won on G9.

The big shortcoming of this plan is that it does nothing to change the timing of Moscow’s fall. I’ve tried to adopt Argo’s POV that Moscow is meant to fall and that there is another step before the game is lost; taking London or Cairo. If Germany survives with significant forces (any armor stack, even an Italian one) it gets so much money that it can decide to take the ME by land, or London by constriction. Dave usually takes the post-Moscow money ($123?!?) and this time, had 9 transports and 9 strat bombers, will full loads. Having build up only about 25 men on England and the planes at Moscow, it was a pushover. I had a massive tan force and 4 factories in the ME zone, 38 UK income—but you can’t defend both Cairo and London, especially since your fighter stack often dies during the Moscow finale.

This dynamic is happening a lot—and even if Moscow holds another 1-2 turns, Japan isn’t going to fall that quickly. Perhaps defeated, but not in detail or invaded by J10. Even if Japan were somehow conquered, that doesn’t win the game. Will continue to work on moving more resources from India to Moscow, earlier. Consistently see that potential landing spots are unsafe to reach Moscow at the critical time (UK5 and after); Northwest Persia is the only safe place to squat that can reach Moscow without an AB, and the axis will fight for NWP since it’s a choke-point. Further efforts to balance the game will be oriented around fleshing out Russia only to push its fall out at least 1-2 turns.