Japan 46 Campaign Supply Sources

[Elxaime]

I noticed that as well, and was wondering why you were not starting to wheel the 147th clockwise to make sure it could retreat.

The Japanese also have a few island supply sources and a supply source in Tokyo, but there is an inconsistency between the Coronet campaign and the scenarios with a later start date featuring fighting on the peninsulas.

As to whether it has a big impact on Japanese strategy: I'm not entirely sure about that.

There's not much strategic benefit to be gained from holding any peninsula. You can either a) Lose control of the objective hexes at some point or b) Lose control of the objective hexes at some point, and lose any units holding the area.

The main campaign scenario is too long to allow the Japanese to defend any peninsulas, the Allies have plenty of time to capture them with limited forces.

Yes, agree completely the peninsulas cannot be held, with or without supply, although certainly they can be held longer with supplied units.  I think though that if you know from the start there is no supply, then from the first turns you plan for evacuating those areas completely.  

I think an issue here is whether the Japanese planned historically to defend every inch, including the peninsulas.  Even though by this hypothetical time of the war, Japan would likely be in dire straights on food production and transport, would they have abandoned large areas to pull back?  This is logical, but as we have seen from Stalingrad and other examples, logic doesn't always rule military decisions.

If the designers decide the Japanese should only have map edge supply, they may need to tweak the VP levels, since the automatic assumption is the Japanese will abandon any areas likely to get cut off from map edge supplies.  I think this actually makes things harder for the Allies, since Japan will start pulling back immediately.

Not wanting to give anything away, I had a purpose for hanging on a while yet, although that purpose may be fanciful as the US seems to be breaking through!