|
DesertWolf101 -> RE: Empire of the Sun (7/9/2020 1:03:31 PM)
|
State of the Empire
Another month has gone by and it is time once more to assess the state of the Empire.
As a reminder, SRA goals at the start of the campaign were:
Seizure of the SRA as an absolute priority with an aggressive timeline. I aim to land in force in Malaya, the Philippines, Borneo, and Sumatra by the end of December, seize all the critical oil fields as well as Singapore and Manila by the end of January, and complete the conquest of Burma, Java and the rest of the Dutch East Indies by the end of February.
As things stand, I would say that I am on schedule with this goal. I fully expect to have Java in hand by the end of February and at this point in my campaign was already planning for next steps.
My aim to minimize losses was as follows:
An aggressive campaign does not mean I will be reckless. Given my disadvantaged position in the correlation of forces between the two sides, I am to minimize the cost by not losing any capital warships during this early period, including light cruisers and above. I will also seek to minimize losses to submarines, escorts, and my merchant navy.
The objective here is also met. I posted the losses up to the end of December at the time (none of which were major combatants). The losses for the month of January consist of 1 APD, 1 DMS, 1 PB, 3 AKs, 1 AKL, and 3 AMc.
My objectives for China were as follows:
China is a considerable objective both for its resources and to deny its use to the enemy as a base for bombers and submarines. The resourcing of a Japanese offensive campaign in China, while not impeding on the focus on the SRA, will not be shortchanged. The objective here is to seize Chungking and the rest of the key resource bases by the end of 1942. Operationally, I will attempt to seize some of the key supply production positions in China early on to make my operations in China almost entirely self sufficient in supply
Generally I would say that the offensive in China is going relatively well. A large number of significant resource/supply bases have been seized, including Loyang, Chengchow, Wuchow, Nanning, Kweilin, and Shaoyang. I should hopefully add Liuchow and the bases around Changsha to the list this month, and am pushing hard towards Chungking while isolating, besieging, and bypassing Chinese strongholds wherever encountered. We shall see if this is enough. (Edit: I forgot to add the monthly toll of destroyed Chinese combat squads - 3,575)
My last set objective was as follows:
Finally, I will attempt to bring the Allies into an early decisive battle by targeting my opponent’s critical supply lines. I will not however make the success of this approach contingent on an allied response by ensuring that the objectives chosen are still in themselves worth the expenditure of resources allocated to seize them. New Guinea, the Solomons, and various islands in the South Pacific will be targeted to elongate the supply lines to Australia while care is taken to minimize resource expenditure in this area. The aim here is to delay the Allied ability to strike back at Japan if I fail to defeat my opponent early on.
This is a mixed bag. I have definitely not succeeded in bringing my opponent into a decisive battle. In fact, quite the opposite, as it appears that he has gone full Sir Robin on me once he lost the first set of naval battles. I feared this conservation of forces strategy, and I plan to be a bit more aggressive and daring in pursuing some of the objectives in the South Pacific as a result.
|
|
|
|
