Phase 3: Battle Plans!
‘Finally!’ I hear you cry. Time for war!
As I have already said, I plan to invade Nationalist China as my first point of interest. This will require a majority of the armed forces, and so mobilisation must start immediately.
The invasion will consist of around 30 divisions surrounding Nationalist China. There will be approximately 10 units to the South, East, and North of China, all ready to invade at a moment’s notice, ready for the turn of the day. This will primarily be made up of infantry, but will also consist of very small divisions of armoured cars, light tanks, artillery, and militia. Supporting these ground units will be my powerful navy, alongside my air force, which will primarily be used for scouting out enemy positions, rather than direct attacks.
One of the keys for this will be the Imperial Navy. Chinese destroyers have already been spotted off the south-east coast of Chinese (soon-to-be Japanese) land – these will be neutralised by my 32nd Battleship Flotilla, stationed just outside the Japanese rural province of Foochow.
That will suffice for the invasion of Nationalist China – there are relatively few coastal Chinese cities, so my ground forces will have to be enough. I am confident of victory, however.
As for the incoming invasion of the rebel puppet of Manchukuo, I assemble the 42nd Battleship Flotilla! This fleet will be based off the coast of Manchukuo’s only coastal city, Yingkow. It is designed to put deliberate pressure on Manchukuo – I will not be in correspondence with the leaders of Manchukuo, as this ‘country’ is the rightful puppet of Japan, which rebelled against its rulers. It will pay the price – I will show no mercy to Manchukuo after I take Nationalist China.
Finally, protection of Japanese interests in the Atlantic must not be ignored. A final fleet is assembled, due to be moved to the island of Saipan. This move is designed deliberately to expand Japan’s influence over several countries in the area, including the Netherlands, Australia, and the USA. Furthermore, the aircraft carrier included in it will give the interceptors stationed in Saipan an opportunity to serve the Imperial Air Force in more than such a minor capacity as a lowly outpost in the Atlantic Ocean. They will be part of one of the major Imperial Fleets!
This map shows the current movement of naval troops, as well as key strategic positions:
Key:
Red arrows: 32nd Battleship Flotilla, assembled off the coast of China, just outside the Japanese rural province of Foochow.
Yellow arrows: 2nd Battleship Flotilla, heading for the coast of the Isle of Saipan.
Blue arrows: 42nd Battleship Flotilla, assembled for the coast of Manchukuo, outside the city of Yingkow.
Note that this is primarily a naval map, so the arrows just show naval fleets being assembled. However, all units, including land and air, are shown as the white diamonds, and my three main land divisions are labelled. Also note that this diagram is crude, and not exhaustive. Strategic positions and key cities are labelled.
Here, the width of the arrows show the amount of troops being moved – the thicker the arrow, the more ships are being mobilised along that particular route. The colour of the arrows indicate the particular fleet being assembled, and the direct of the arrows show where the fleet is going. Where smaller arrow lead into larger ones, this is indicating the smaller fleets merging into larger ones – they will all go too the same end point, indicated by the largest arrow of that colour.
Furthermore, note land units mentioned in the main battle plans above are being sent, as described.
Phase 4: Unit Production (& reflection)
Finally, an hour and a half into the game, I can start producing units. I notice that I am woefully short on submarines, so start producing level 2 subs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Next, I see that I have very few (not sure how many but certainly fewer than 3) naval bombers, despite having researched level 3. I immediately use this opportunity to commence the production of level 3 naval bombers in Tokyo and Keijo. I would like to build a level 2 aircraft factory in the latter, but I lack rare materials, which are expensive in the market.
After a short break, I take a glance at ordnance foundries – I see no strategical or tactical advantage at the moment which would help me in building anything ordance-based. I’m sure this will change in future, however for now I am primarily an island nation and kingdom, so will be reliant on my navy, air force, and core units of infantry and armoured cars for liberation. Based upon this, I start producing one armoured car division in Shanghai, at the same time building a level 2 tank plant in that city. I use around 200 gold to complete this, as I am a little short of rare materials. In this game I wont balk at using gold, but I won’t be paying money to use exorbitant amounts of gold, or spamming when I think I’m losing, or anything like that. I will document all uses of gold in this playthrough. I also start training one armoured car division in Beijing.
At this point I have a large surplus of food and goods, over 10,000 of each to be exact. I also have a reasonable amount of steel, at 2,400. However, I am very low on both oil and rare materials, which I have less than 500 of. I predict that I will need quite a lot of food in future, as well as steel, so I wont sell these. However, I see no future need for goods, especially as it is the material I produce the most of, at over 11,500 per day. Therefore, I will utilise the market to my advantage, selling off my surplus goods at a higher price, and attempting to buy oil and rare materials on the cheap. As the market is still very expensive at the moment, I won’t buy or sell current orders, instead I will place my own. The 10% trade fee can be taken up by my current stock of cash, which is just under 40,000 at the moment.
As a final touch, I go through every city, and realise I haven’t started training any infantry! So of course, I start building level 2 barracks, as well as training level 2 infantry, in the cities of Taiyuan, Sharamuren, and Tsingtao, all three being in the area between Manchukuo and Nationalist China. At this point, initial diplomatic relations have been established, all of the 5 main cities have been industrialised further, and infrastructure is being put in place for troops to be trained (upgrading barracks etc). Furthermore, research is being done into the higher-levelled units to ensure specialisation of the army and advancement of military knowledge, as well as battle plans being drawn up for the invasion of Nationalist China, and first blueprints and thoughts on the final occupation of the rebel puppet Manchukuo.
