Japan '45 Historical Plan/Placement Olympic

[ComradeP]

I found those websites as well, I guess the same results popped up in our individual searches.

Note that under "geographics" in the second link it mentions Shibushi-Wan. I haven't been able to find when the name changed either.

I haven't found references to an "Ariake Plain" in the south-east (instead of the north-west) aside from references in US military documents yet.

[ComradeP]

The US Navy and Royal Navy support is substantial, though most if not all of it will be gone by X+5.

I'm not sure where the USS Cleveland and USS New Orleans are in our narrative, as they could've participated.

The USS Fletcher might still be in a West Coast shipyard at this time, and the USS Sumner was escorting TG38.3. The USS Brooklyn is on the East Coast.

The other lead ships are all present.

Ships in Shibushi Bay are C quality aside from the US Navy battleships. That might be a balancing measure. The USS Biloxi also has 4 turrets instead of 6, which might be a typo.

I wasn't aware ships could move, so I could've avoided the turret hits on two ships. I always thought they were static, like units with a Fire Ability and that "Naval" referred to some special units not in use in the handful of PzC titles I have. This is the first PzC game with an actual fleet on my side, so that goes to show that I have a few things to learn about the game as well.

[ComradeP]

Air support is impressive, but this is one of the PzC games with mostly small air units. The big ones might be an error.

Air support is all C quality.

The carrier groups come and go, as do some of the bomber and fighter groups.

As losses are determined by weight of fire/the fire value, bigger air units are more effective. Though 3x12 planes might do the same damage as 36 planes, whether a unit has to pass a Disruption check is also influenced by the casualties a unit takes from a single hit.

Recon units are also largely ineffective when they're small, which is unfortunate.

Small air units does mean that more air units are available each turn, but I prefer 36/48 plane units. As mentioned earlier, small air units with mostly fighter bombers in them also result in less effective interdiction.

Small air units also means more AA rolls for the enemy, which are already causing a handful of losses. More AA rolls are the biggest downside together with targets not being hit hard.

Napalm is a fixed number it seems per type of aircraft, as it isn't scaled to account for differences in payload unlike the Soft Attack value.

The screenshots show all flavours of aircraft at my disposal.

Royal Navy carriers use US aircraft aside from the Seafire, which is why the air groups of only one British carrier are shown.

[ComradeP]

Turn 9, third night turn.

02:00, November 5th, X+1.

As there's no midnight turn, the 02:00 turn is the turn where corps attachments are possible.

The weather has worsened, with ground conditions turning to Mud.

As I wrote to John, this might be more of a handicap to him than to me. The Japanese can no longer move into Brush hexes and assault and forces south of the USMC beaches will have a harder time moving north due to the lack of major roads (major/primary roads ignore the Condition movement point modifier related to weather).

Here's the programmed weather for the rest of the game.

Left to right: date, normal/soft/mud/snow/frozen chance, min visibility in hexes, max visibility in hexes, storm chance.



The USMC continues to maul the three Isolated companies beyond the eastern ridge, but not much else happens.

The AT gun platoon with 1 or 2 AT guns remaining east of Miyazaki retreated with a No Effect result when assaulted by a Sherman company. I hate it when that happens.

[ComradeP]

I'll post an overview of the status for each corps and each division on the 06:00 turn of each day.

I'll show the full status of each infantry regiment broken down by battalion, but not the status of the other units. That would take considerably more time

Some infantry battalions have been moved into hexes with other battalions from the same regiment to quicken the process.

The 41st Infantry Division arrives through a strategy choice, as do some of I Corps' engineer units, which is why they're "not present"

Also note that not all units have landed on a beach yet. 

USMC Tank Battalions consist of 36 regular Shermans and 9 flamethrower Shermans. Army Tank Battalions consist of 45 Shermans and 15 Stuarts.



USMC:

The Marines are mostly in good shape, and the worst hit units will be fine after a few turns of rest. The LVT units did take a beating whilst on the beach due to their low Defense rating, though.

The corps-level LVT's haven't arrived yet.

In each division, 2 regiments have 30 LVT's attached to them. Each regiment has a 4 vehicle Priest company instead of a towed Cannon Company. Marine regiments have no AT guns.





XI Corps:

The 1st Cavalry Division has a brigade structure. An independent cavalry regiment is assigned to the corps as well, but it hasn't arrived on-map yet.

Both divisions have been resting for most of the night, so they're in good to OK shape. The 1st Cavalry Division units and the 169th Infantry Regiment of the 43rd took some big hits upon landing from the Invasion Loss mechanic, but are otherwise OK.

Infantry regiments have a 6 gun Cannon Company and 8-9 AT guns.





I Corps:

Both divisions are in OK shape, though the 33rd can use some rest. Note that one regiment of each division hasn't arrived on-map yet.

Infantry effectiveness won't decrease that much until unit strength decreases to less than 70% due to the 70% strength=90% effectiveness rule. Until you start taking serious losses, Fatigue is more of a handicap than losses.

The corps has an additional Tank Battalion attached to it.

Divisional artillery and regimental guns are not on-map yet. I was considering if it would be safe to do so or if I'd just lose them.

[lezgo killemall]

looking forward to following this thanks for posting.

[ComradeP]

Turn 10, 06:00 X+1

Visibility is 4 hexes. John commented that it's difficult to predict what visibility will be like on the first daylight turn. I tend to assume that it will be the max visibility for the day.

There are some nice targets for the Navy and Army/Navy/USMC air units.

My forces will try to expand their beachheads, and the XI Corps divisions will attempt to meet in the middle.

More detailed strategy will follow in subsequent turns, as I gain information on Japanese overnight redeployment.

My forces have recovered/replaced 1598 men since the start of the scenario.

Recovery is 1%, Replacement rate is 1% for the V Marine Amphibious Corps and 3% for everybody else. Curiously, the lower Marine replacement rate is set for the corps and not individual formations and I'm not sure what rate applies if I use Corps Attachment to reassign units.

[ComradeP]

As expected, the Japanese were hit hard last turn by air strikes and naval bombardment. It was a good start of the day, but unless I can get off the I Corps beaches with my forces largely intact it's meaningless.

I'd guess that about a regiment of the 303rd Division is no longer combat capable.

3rd Marine will assault the hills north of Kushikino and Kukino.

2nd Marine will assault the hills overlooking Nagasato.



John is withdrawing the defenders of the area between 1st Cavalry and 43rd Infantry. I'd guess that about a regiment of the 86th Division as well as its Cavalry Regiment are no longer combat capable.

1st Cavalry will move in three directions for the moment.

A weak force will assault the hills in the south that are overlooking the beach. The bulk of the division will assault Kushira.

The remaining units will move north/north-east to meet the 43rd Infantry and clear the beaches the Americal Division will arrive at on X+3.

The 43rd Infantry will establish a defensive position looking north, whilst part of the division will head south-west to clear Dusenberg and Essex beaches.

Arrival locations for follow-up forces are still placed as if 3 divisions land on X-Day, like in the regular Olympic campaign. I Corps HQ arrives at the supply source between Dusenberg Beach and Essex Beach. The corps artillery arrives on the beach 1 hex south of the friendly 50 point objective overlooking Dusenberg beach.



Miyazaki Meatgrinder.

The battleship USS California was withdrawn.

John is pulling back some forces facing the 25th Infantry. He still has substantial reserves in the area, hiding out of sight. I'd guess that about a regiment of the 156th Division is no longer combat capable.

The 33rd Infantry is still in a tight spot. The I Corps HQ and corps artillery land at the supply source north of Chrysler Beach. I'm hoping to secure that area so I can safely deploy those units. Otherwise, I'll just let John kill the Corps HQ so it respawns at a more practical location.

Hopefully, I can clear Miyazaki in order to link the beaches and shorten my defensive line.

I'd estimate that about a regiment of the 154th Division is no longer combat capable.

You basically have three options in this area: move the 33rd Infantry to the area held by the 25th Infantry, send the 25th Infantry north to the area held by the 33rd Infantry or leave each division in its sector hoping you can clear it and they can stay alive until the 41st Infantry Division arrives on X+2.

[ComradeP]

The game is still very much alive and kicking, I was just momentarily too busy with a new job to update the AAR and John was away on vacation for a while.

I'll post turn 12 to 18 for each sector in a single post per sector.

A detailed overview of the situation will follow with the turn 19 06:00 situation report/unit status overview.

The weather conditions on X+2 have improved to Soft.

The USMC is doing a good job, facing only light opposition. The difference between the USMC landings and those at Miyazaki goes to show just what kind of a bad idea it is to land in a heavily defended area with troops that are not notably superior to the opposing forces.

[ComradeP]

The 1st Cavalry Division and 43rd Infantry have linked up in the XI Corps area. 3-4 companies of the 86th Division have been Isolated in the process and were destroyed on turn 18.

Progress will be slow until reinforcements arrive and Americal lands.

The Japanese have constructed a Bunker northwest of Yoshimure, which with -40%/+40 and Fanatical Nation rule preventing retreat will be nearly impossible to take.