Japan 45 Campaign

[Secret45]

About the better movement of the Japanese units. Couldn't it be justified by saying the Japanese just know the area better since they are fighting on their land and probably trained in the area prior to the invasion. Also you could argue that they might use tunnels as short cuts to move faster. I think tunnels are mentioned several times in the Designer Notes and might be simulated that way. Not sure how tunnel networks could else be represented in the game. Taking this two thinks into account for me it sounds plausible that Japanese troops can cover more ground per turn then the Americans.

[ComradeP]

I believe the tunnel networks are represented by Trails.

The issue with the increased movement speed isn't necessarily the fact that Japanese units can move additional hexes each turn.  The Soft/Mud condition movement modifiers make it impossible for Speed 4 C quality units to move and assault in any other condition than Normal  The Japanese can at least assault when moving into Clear hexes.

Note: the B quality US units can move and assault as well, but not the C quality units in Japan '46. It makes attacking quite tricky as units have to start adjacent next to Japanese units in order to be able to assault them.

[Kool Kat]

The Japanese currently have:

-Bigger battalions in terms of component units (4 company units) as the abstracted US weapons are not abstracted into a fourth company (unlike, for example, German battalions with abstracted heavy weapons in some PzC games). Fatigue management is much easier with 4 company battalions.
-More men in each battalion due to the additional company.
-Abstracted heavy weapons and AT support assets in 2 additional units for many battalions. More units equals more flexibility.

Gent: 

The Japanese battalions (late stage war) and how it translates into J45 game play.

- Battalions are not full strength. Typically at 70% - 85% strength at best and with fewer men.  
- Fatigue management difficult. Hard to cycle in fresh troops (Overwhelming Allied airpower. Naval power. Artillery). Typically, Japanese players need to break down units to cover more terrain negating (and actually increasing) accumulated fatigue. 
- Abstracted heavy weapons (70mm) and AT support (37mm) have less firepower then Allied support weapons and again with fewer support weapons (not full strength) per battalion.

So, a Japanese battalion (Morale A) trenched in good defensive terrain (e.g. brush -20 + trench -40 = -60 defense) will reach max fatigue and/or break typically within 5 turns of concentrated Allied firepower (Allied unit attack. Airpower. Naval. Artillery).  

Capturing Japanese bunkers is difficult in terms of game play and as it was historically. The Japanese fought to the last man. A successful Allied strategy for "bunker busting" is to surround and isolate it. Then repeated armor and infantry assaults to reduce the defenders and eventually eliminate them. May be "frustrating" to impatient players who assume it should be a "cake walk" to roll over the Japanese.

[ComradeP]

The navy can't hit targets more than 32 kilometres from the coastal hexes, and the majority of the naval units can only hit targets up to a distance of around 20 hexes.

Are you playing with Higher Fatigue Recovery on (it's on by default)? I think that's a good optional rule to use for these scenarios, as it partially compensates for the higher losses due to the alt values but still rewards good Fatigue management.

One interesting thing about Japan '45 is that is has 3 night turns.

There are no dawn/dusk turns in Japan '45 and Japan '46.