Play up, play up and play the game.... Flashman returns

[BBfanboy]

Being a suspicious sort, Uncle Joe just might think your actions along the north coast of Japan are designed to forestall a Soviet leap from the two islands they have taken onto Honshu. Flashman should recommend loaning the Soviets some xAPs and xAKs so they can bring all of their army for a direct amphib assault on Tokyo. What could go wrong? [;)]

[Capt. Harlock]

Anybody else have an unsettled feeling about the "plans for that parade"?

[RogerJNeilson]

Flashman kept an interested eye on the map and the developments. He had a sense that time was ticking away and he needed a plan. Now the 1st August news had come through that with the taking of Okayama and Kanazawa allied forces in Jpana had effectively liked up the landing sites and also cut Japan in two. The only question was whether they then removed the western forces or trend immediately to Tokyo in what would be a bloody battle but would effectively end the war.

He also wondered what was going on behind the bamboo curtain as it was coming to be called.... and when he would be 'invited' to Port Arthur.

[Alfred]

Is it really necessary to engage in costly land battles which help the enemy's VP denominator? Don't you now have sufficient air base infrastructure to quickly finish off the game with strategic bombing?

Alfred

[RogerJNeilson]

I may have loads of 4Es and could simply plough up everything, but it would make a very tedious game, and having now got a lot of troops on the Home Islands I really want to use them.

As for losing points by engaging in land battles, that does not seem to be borne out by the stats.....


Roger

[BBfanboy]

Alfred was suggesting the slope of the curve might be less than the ideal 2:1+ .
Estimating from the chart, you started with a ratio of about 1.13 on turn 1210 and ended with about 1.74, so your ratio is improving but it is not going above 2.0 yet. That means your Autovictory is being delayed.

But as you said, you want to play it out to see how it goes in this rare game with invasion of Japan. I'm good with that! We need more time for Flashman's fate to be revealed.

[RogerJNeilson]

Yep I get that, I have never played this game (heresy) for a points result, but always to see how well I could do compared to the historical outcome. At the moment the points are showing a marginal victory. If you look at the map I would suggest its not really marginal and is heading towards complete victory. I have always leant away from the playing for points aspect.

[RogerJNeilson]

If this were a game of `Go' (origin Japan), everything that is red on that map outside of the Home Islands would be regarded as 'dead' stones.

Roger

[Alfred]

The VP structure does take into account the historical record.

You may think that in territorial terms you are in advance of the historical record, although there is important territory shown to be still in Japanese hands, but you have taken much heavier casualties than was the case historically. Public opinion exercised a severe handbrake on the feasibility of Allied operations. If anything, AE's casualties transformed into the VP system very much discounts the historical public opinion handbrake.

Alfred

[RogerJNeilson]

I as always bow to your knowledge Alfred. I would dispute that outside of the Home Islands there is anything important as regards to the war. The Japanese side has little apart from the odd MTB afloat and next to no supplies anywhere. We have recently discovered a BB which has been dealt that was hiding at an anchorage in the HI and there is possibly one CL lurking.. whether they have any fuel is debatable. Their air strength is on a couple of bases in Japan and pretty much impotent. Thus anything that is flying the Japanese flag is merely awaiting the orders from home to surrender - they are all self governing POW camps.

So yes there will be war weariness and there will be a mounting casualty bill -in deed the UK forces are stretched thin now. So never having heard how this may be taken into account in the endgame I am interested in what you say.

However, given this game has got to a position that few have done my interest, and that of my stoical opponent, is to see how it finally plays out and learn from that. Recent land battles have suggested that the supply issue and lack of training is a major issue for the Japanese, also that there are few places on the HI that are fortified to a degree necessary to withstand the firepower we can throw at them.

We shall see.....

Roger

[RogerJNeilson]

8th August 1945: Rashin

Flashman ‘relaxed’ in his new billet. He now had a ‘house’ of sorts for himself. In the time he had been away in Comradeland things had certainly changed here. Aside from the odd rusting hulk of a personnel craft too damaged to bother repairing and the troops needed to service the area and the planes still flying the place was pretty much deserted.

However for all he physically could relax and feel he had a place to himself his mind was much troubled.

First of all he had a report to prepare for the General following he is return from Port Arthur. The headlines were easy, the detail a small problem. The General wanted to know how the Soviets worked and what their tactics were - simple….. they assembled well over 17,000 artillery pieces and demolished or possibly vaporised Port Arthur and the defenders. It was brutal and it was incredibly one sided. Flashman was not aware of any prisoners. As for the civilians he doubted they had survived as months of starvation would have taken its toll prior to the barges that simply swept across the city.

The small detail was the sudden requirement of Valentina to take command of the 277th Engineer Battalion who were scheduled to lead the assault, and the landing of the barrage right on top of that unit…… her body had not been recovered. he had been informed of this by an NKVD General who seemed to view the occurrence as a simple fact of life. Bundled rather hastily on a train he had been shipped back to Yingkow and thence by air to Yenki and the normal cross border return to Allied territory.

He had not bothered to let the General know his Soviet ‘source’ was no more and this was a problem. The General had very much pointed out how valuable Flashman was going to be with his inside track on the Soviets through his contact, and that really as the `Japanese were pretty much finished it was all about resuming the “Great game’. This was why he would remain at Rashin and not get involved in the messy and pretty irrelevant pacification of Japan. Rashin suited Flashman, he just had to spin out the soviet information until the war ended, then let the General know Valentina was no more and hopefully he would be off on a ship home clearly labelled ‘no longer needed’.

His thoughts turned to Japan and how long he needed to maintain Valentina as a liven source…….

So, things were going fine on Honshu, finally the ground troops had found a weakness in the hastily shored up Japanese lines and burst out at Gifu with the 19th Motorised speeding through to kick a base unit out of Tsu and thus enable a join up of the various beachheads. Forces were moving along the coast of western Honshu to meet the enemy seeming to be gathering most of what were the defenders of Kyushu as they move into Honshu. The Tokyo defence is strong, but the drive on Hammatsu again will likely cut them off so the Empire is now a number of independent cities and two large disconnected lumps of forces. Hard fighting on the ground, but nothing left in the air or the seas…. just a matter of time. However it only takes one crazy man to ruin your life so this is a better place to be at the moment was his conclusion.

[RogerJNeilson]

23rd August

Flashman was finding Rashin very pleasant, it was a total backwater where nothing happened…..

He had now perfected his trips to the border zone, ostensibly to pass on secrets to Valentina, but actually to trade stuff from the plentiful Allied stores for a rather potent bottle or two of vodka. Life was good - apart from one thing…. he was missing Totty…. the locals were not to his taste and since Valentina was vaporised he had not had the pleasure of female company.

It did look as though things would be wrapped up soon. Good thing as well as he gathered that Rashin was not the warmest of places in the winter. He hoped that the groundlings would get on and end all of this so he could perhaps take a slow ride back home, via Hong Kong and Singapore of course.

He was following progress keenly, but from a distance.

The forces based on Kyushi were basically bottled up and holding positions at Hiroshima and east of Shimoneski were basically keeping them out of the war. Forces on Shikoku were impotent - no naval or air forces so they were just sat there waiting it out. Similarly on Hokkaido where Sapporo and Wakkanai were still in Japanese hands but nothing was happening. Ominato likewise was invested by a screening force.

Meanwhile the assault forces for Tokyo were massing. Maebashi with over 100,000 estimated Japanese troops was being watched by forces at Nagaoka and Nagano, well dug in in case of a sally, and ready to move forward when it was judged right, Utsonomiya was to be taken by a force of the 9th Aus Div, 96th Inf Div and 5th Ind Div with armour and combat engineers in support,

The main attack axis was to be out of recently taken Gifu, down the coast at Nagoya and Hammamatsu, then removing enemy occupation of Shimizu. This force would then advance upon Tokyo as the main hammer. Supporting these moves would be ship to shore bombardments from all the allied BBs and CA/CL forces based out of Sendai and Osaka and latterly out of Nagoya when it was in allied control. Once Shimizu and Chiba were taken there would be no targets left for the ships to bombard - one sally to Yokohama had shown that was simply not a fight to get into again.
The CVs were off back to Pearl, with nothing to do and a routine bombing of Tokyo mainly was underway.

It all seemed to Flashman so simple now, but it was inconvenient that lack of totty…….

[RogerJNeilson]

10th September

Not a lot went on in Rashin, this suited Flashman. There had been a flurry the other day when some big Yank bomber landed having been blown off course from some top secret mission - the security troops sealed off the airstrip and even to glance in the direction of the plane seems to invite a summary court-martial and firing squad. Well Flashman was content to let them play with their little toys - and it sat morosely on the tarmac with its crew whisked off somewhere.....

Anyway time for another celebration - Yokohama was taken and with it Tokyo was surrounded. Truly there were mere days left. falshman did not envy the troops who were slated to make the final attack - it was estimated that over 60 units were dug in - around half a millions crazy fanatical Japanese willing to die before their Emperor..... well let them.....

On the other hand the latest briefing he had seen suggested that they may well not have an awful lot left to fight with, nor an awful lot of energy given the starvation of the siege......


Vodka time he thought, shame about no Totty to share it with......

[RogerJNeilson]

Posted in the main forum that the game has now totally concluded with the taking of Tokyo.

Its been an amazing experience, thanks to all who had a hand in the creation of this once in a lifetime game, and to both my opponents for forcing my brain to think very hard at times.

Roger

[RangerJoe]

It would be interesting to see what the Japanese had left for HI, armaments points, vehicle points, and other industrial resources. Not to mention airplanes and trained pilots

[RogerJNeilson]

I am sure if you got in touch with my opponent he would fill you in, although I can see the state of play now as the game is over I have never played as Japan so my interpretation would be way off. If you just want some screenshots on the other hand if you let me know what I can grab them easily.

Mike: durnedwolf was my esteemed and gentlemanly opponent.

Roger