Japan '46 Operation Coronet Allied AAR

[ComradeP]

I doubt most frontline Japanese formations, aside from those recently targeted by heavy bombers or the Navy, are below 75% or so strength. There are enough Japanese units to rotate them.

Japanese losses are stiff, but they don't always have to be.

The density of Japanese units at the frontline is quite high. That's something the Japanese player can afford, but it does result in higher losses as numerous units are holding suboptimal positions with lower defensive benefits.

The Japanese don't really have much of an incentive to hold the frontline hex opposing my units in strength, but my opponent does so. The Japanese only need to hold a fairly short line to keep the US forces out of Tokyo due to the rivers in the area.

The Japanese forward defence in strength results in higher losses. I'm mostly fighting in range of the Navy's guns, in a fairly small area where I can concentrate artillery units to cover most of the front. That's changing in the III Marine Amphibious Corps sector, but it was the case for most of the game thus far.

Due to the way direct fire works, it's difficult for the US forces to establish firepower superiority. Though the relative decrease in firepower from terrain, trenches and fortifications as a percentage is the same for all units, the decrease in terms of reduction in the SA value is higher for the US forces due to higher base SA value's.

The firepower gap is quite small for entrenched units in Brush/Forest terrain and firing with my regular Army infantry units usually accomplishes little.

The Japanese can draw artillery fire by firing with entrenched battalion MG units from two hexes away and then fire on US forces with the infantry battalions. My opponent uses only a limited amount of direct fire, mostly relying on assaults.

The assaults are costly for both sides, though the losses favour the Japanese 1:2. The losses from the USAAF and artillery on my turn punish the Japanese to the extent that the Japanese can't keep assaulting for more than 3-4 turns in a sector. Launching assaults all along the front could be effective, but thus far assaults have been concentrated in a handful of sectors.

I'm still convinced that the Japanese can remove XIV Corps from its sector, either destroying it or throwing it into the X Corps area. Even a slight withdrawal by XIV Corps makes landing reinforcements in the area difficult, due to the Japanese holding the hexes north of the beaches.

US units are less capable of absorbing losses due to, on average, lower quality than Japanese units and smaller unit size.

I think, on average, US losses would normally be much higher by this point.

A US victory is not a certainty, but things are starting to look good for the US.