Japan '45 Historical Plan/Placement Olympic

[ComradeP]

Wartime estimates by the Japanese mention US divisions have many times the firepower of a Japanese division. That's not really the case in the game, as Japanese divisions are bigger, Elite and 1st Line infantry (and my Marine battalions) have Defense values of 18 instead of the usual 16 and artillery is underpowered compared to its historical equivalent. At best, you can achieve a 2:1 firepower ratio.

Japanese MG and AT units are also on-map, whereas US MG units are abstracted. Both sides receive AT and battalion/regimental infantry gun and cannon units.

It's difficult to take out Japanese units, as the Fanatical Nations rule makes them immune to taking additional losses when unable to retreat (normally 50% remaining strength lost per enemy assault) and the optional rules in use make it difficult to kill small units through (in)direct fire. I still have to figure out if I should be isolating and attacking Japanese units or should try to bump them out of the way.

The naval support looks impressive, but ships use 1/2 global supply value to check for availability which means that with a global supply value of 60 halved to 30, they'll only be able to fire every 3-4 turns. US beach supply sources have a supply value of 60.

With local supply values being around 40 aside from near Shibushi Bay, Japanese artillery can fire every 2-3 turns mostly.

Interdiction is strong on paper but usually weak in practice as the game randomly selects an enemy air unit to roll for interdiction. As many US air units are small carrier fighter/bomber or light bomber units with low Soft Attack values, interdiction units are not particularly stiff unless the game picks a "Napalm" unit with high Soft Attack values.

Air visibility limitations are generous, as 50% of my air units can fly at a visibility of 2 hexes, which helps, though there are only 2 days (with Programmed Weather on) where visibility can drop below 3.

There are no dawn or dusk turns, and there are 3 night turns, which is a new experience for me as all the other PzC/FWWC I've played thus far had dawn/dusk turns and 2 night turns .