The title refers to the code word used by the Japanese when they attacked Pearl Harbor, which was saying that the attack was successful. Contrary to what the title may imply, I don't plan to bomb Pearl Harbor (more about that later). That doesn't mean, however, that I don't want to rule the Pacific. In fact, that's what this game is about: WWII Pacific Domination victory as Japan. Of course, there are two problems here. One is that you will, most likely, get a victory point win before domination. Secondly, it would be just about impossible to win by domination by getting 66% land. You'd have to basically win Conquest victory and rebuild the culture. I doubt that will happen. So the rules changed a bit after some testing.
There is now 55% land needed for Domination, which is 1% more than what the Allies start with (but they won't hold it, so I don't need to worry about them winning that way). Basically, I figured that I couldn't get more than 2% of the 10% America has. Culture may not fill in and I may miss an island or two, so there are 3 percent points to account for that. To prevent victory point win, it's at 60000, although even then I wouldn't say it wouldn't happen. As far as the settings, I'm Japan (of course), and the difficulty is Sid.
Also, I'm busy lately, so it may go a little slowly at times.
One more thing, I'd like to thank LouLong, who I have learned a lot from about this scenario. If you want a good start as to how to conquer the Pacific, I suggest reading some PBEMs about this game, like the recent Kamikaze ones. Although the primary goal is to give a sort of "turnlog" in those games, if you study each thing that happened and figured out how, trust me, you'll get better fast.
Now, on to the story. Although I will try to make it somewhat "storylike", as it is told through a Japanese general's (although I admit that I know nothing of what I Japanese general sounds like, and an American general would sound like the exact opposite, but it's not as easy as just being the opposite of an American general. Long story short, forgive my bad impersonation of a Japanese general) point of view (and yes, I know that a general may not have as much power as he does in the story, but it has to be that way), but I would also like to show what I'm thinking when I made these decisions.
This is my first story, too, so it may not be perfect... And I am not entirely sure if this is doable even now, but I want to give it a try and try as hard as I can.
December, 1941.
"I found Rome a city of bricks and left it a city of marble."
-Caesar Augustus
Now, I like to think that this statement can apply to the Japanese Empire. All that was needed to know that it was managed by nitwits was to look at what the Empire had finished and was working on. There were granaries everywhere, some in cities that needed them, some in cities that didn't. Many cities had coal plants and not factories, which is quite bizarre. Extremely happy cities that will never see draft have temples and the like. As far as what was being built, I couldn't find a single city not building flak! So I quietly suggested tanks. They're the only thing that can conquer fast enough for this war. I also even talked the Emperor out of keeping some of those granaries! And although I'm not displeased with them, the current conquests are nothing in my ambitious eyes.
As much as I love building this stuff, we couldn't do it at the start. We would need to secure a road to most of the cities.
The first to fall happened to be Hong Kong. The infantry division that captured it was wounded, but there were no casualties. The next to fall would have to be Hankow. An infantry division fell to the infantry in a heavily fortified position. Once taken over, the fort was destroyed so units could pass through. It is placed under seige, with one infantry division dying in the process. When it fell, the Chinese general, Chiang Kai-sheck, seized a piece of land that blocked the railway. This meant that Foochow, as well, would have to go. It could not be bombed with the same strength as Hankow, but it was attacked anyway by the Yokosuka SNL and the SNLF Marine divisions.
However, there was an error. The wrong transport was sent. The other rushed immediately, but the Phillipines would have to wait. Foochow is taken as Japanese territory and micromanagement can begin. The treasury, in the end, nearly doubled.
Now was the time to conquer as much as possible. The next to fall was Rangoon, which was heavily bombed and then attacked by Nipponese Infantry (no movement cost in jungle). Nanning was next, being captured by Japanese tanks. The 5th Engineer Regiment killed the Chinese Infantryman that blocked our railroads. I then decided to assault Sian; it was a major city. After a seemingly endless attack (but relatively low casualties), the city was ours. Once again, Combat Engineers cleared the way for tanks. This pathway allowed the fall of Lanchow. The next target seemed like the only logical one, yet it was scary. It was Chunking.
In the first attack, I used a tank army, which had 2 (not 3, but 2) tanks in it. It left with 4 health points. I now face a dangerous decision. I could risk the army but potentially take the city, or I could join a tank in and play it safe. I risked it- and won. Attack Bhuket and lose 2 infantry, but win. Sink the Repulse and Prince of Wales. Drop 2 paratroopers at Kuala Lumpur and 1 at Medan.
Most fighting after this is random troop killing. There was some island hopping, too. Guam was taken by the 2nd Maizuru. Davao fell, no casualties. Drop paratroopers close to Sarmi. Capture Manokwari and land units at Tenate, Puerto Princess, and Guadalcanal.
After some debate, I decided against attacking Honoululu. I would need those planes back at home.
Well, now it's over. Here are some notes I've made:
-Strike as fast as you can, use every unit wisely.
-Don't mobilize yet. In a victory point game, that would be fine. But I need a couple turns to build culture in conquered lands, in China and Australia primarily.
-Tanks are your best friends. Combat Engineers don't work well for the Axis in this one; they're slow. Later on, you'll want Marines to invade Dutch islands, then more tanks and perhaps some combat engineers then if you get to Australia.
Here's a look at the empire right now:
There was little in the way of enemy retliation. Any resistance was stamped out. A destroyer near Rabaul sank, though. A submarine sank a transport presumably loaded with troops at Wake Island. Our scientists begin discovering better tanks, and will be finished in May of 1942.
January, 1942
I had a little surprise waiting for me everywhere. I did my math and realized that a Sid AI could build an MG Battalion with 22 shields, which is NOTHING! So, of course, they were everywhere.
Take Kunming but lose a lot of infantry, about 5. Zero pilots (which can have zero intelligence) bombed Chengdu and failed miserably. I'm now faced with a dilema: how fast should I go? I decided to slow down just a bit. Attacking next turn sometimes won't hurt... I hope. Capture Wake Island and Puerto Princess. Taiyuan was easy to capture. Kill the Chinese units near my captured cities. I continued the attack on Chengdu, and it is left with a single infantry division that is seriously injured. Tanks were able to capture Taiyuan. Hopefully China will be gone by February.
Now, inbetween turns. I sunk units near Ketapang but lost a battleship. A destroyer near Guam was also lost.
And it looks like this now:
There is now 55% land needed for Domination, which is 1% more than what the Allies start with (but they won't hold it, so I don't need to worry about them winning that way). Basically, I figured that I couldn't get more than 2% of the 10% America has. Culture may not fill in and I may miss an island or two, so there are 3 percent points to account for that. To prevent victory point win, it's at 60000, although even then I wouldn't say it wouldn't happen. As far as the settings, I'm Japan (of course), and the difficulty is Sid.
Also, I'm busy lately, so it may go a little slowly at times.
One more thing, I'd like to thank LouLong, who I have learned a lot from about this scenario. If you want a good start as to how to conquer the Pacific, I suggest reading some PBEMs about this game, like the recent Kamikaze ones. Although the primary goal is to give a sort of "turnlog" in those games, if you study each thing that happened and figured out how, trust me, you'll get better fast.
Now, on to the story. Although I will try to make it somewhat "storylike", as it is told through a Japanese general's (although I admit that I know nothing of what I Japanese general sounds like, and an American general would sound like the exact opposite, but it's not as easy as just being the opposite of an American general. Long story short, forgive my bad impersonation of a Japanese general) point of view (and yes, I know that a general may not have as much power as he does in the story, but it has to be that way), but I would also like to show what I'm thinking when I made these decisions.
This is my first story, too, so it may not be perfect... And I am not entirely sure if this is doable even now, but I want to give it a try and try as hard as I can.
December, 1941.
"I found Rome a city of bricks and left it a city of marble."
-Caesar Augustus
Now, I like to think that this statement can apply to the Japanese Empire. All that was needed to know that it was managed by nitwits was to look at what the Empire had finished and was working on. There were granaries everywhere, some in cities that needed them, some in cities that didn't. Many cities had coal plants and not factories, which is quite bizarre. Extremely happy cities that will never see draft have temples and the like. As far as what was being built, I couldn't find a single city not building flak! So I quietly suggested tanks. They're the only thing that can conquer fast enough for this war. I also even talked the Emperor out of keeping some of those granaries! And although I'm not displeased with them, the current conquests are nothing in my ambitious eyes.
As much as I love building this stuff, we couldn't do it at the start. We would need to secure a road to most of the cities.
The first to fall happened to be Hong Kong. The infantry division that captured it was wounded, but there were no casualties. The next to fall would have to be Hankow. An infantry division fell to the infantry in a heavily fortified position. Once taken over, the fort was destroyed so units could pass through. It is placed under seige, with one infantry division dying in the process. When it fell, the Chinese general, Chiang Kai-sheck, seized a piece of land that blocked the railway. This meant that Foochow, as well, would have to go. It could not be bombed with the same strength as Hankow, but it was attacked anyway by the Yokosuka SNL and the SNLF Marine divisions.
However, there was an error. The wrong transport was sent. The other rushed immediately, but the Phillipines would have to wait. Foochow is taken as Japanese territory and micromanagement can begin. The treasury, in the end, nearly doubled.
Now was the time to conquer as much as possible. The next to fall was Rangoon, which was heavily bombed and then attacked by Nipponese Infantry (no movement cost in jungle). Nanning was next, being captured by Japanese tanks. The 5th Engineer Regiment killed the Chinese Infantryman that blocked our railroads. I then decided to assault Sian; it was a major city. After a seemingly endless attack (but relatively low casualties), the city was ours. Once again, Combat Engineers cleared the way for tanks. This pathway allowed the fall of Lanchow. The next target seemed like the only logical one, yet it was scary. It was Chunking.
In the first attack, I used a tank army, which had 2 (not 3, but 2) tanks in it. It left with 4 health points. I now face a dangerous decision. I could risk the army but potentially take the city, or I could join a tank in and play it safe. I risked it- and won. Attack Bhuket and lose 2 infantry, but win. Sink the Repulse and Prince of Wales. Drop 2 paratroopers at Kuala Lumpur and 1 at Medan.
Most fighting after this is random troop killing. There was some island hopping, too. Guam was taken by the 2nd Maizuru. Davao fell, no casualties. Drop paratroopers close to Sarmi. Capture Manokwari and land units at Tenate, Puerto Princess, and Guadalcanal.
After some debate, I decided against attacking Honoululu. I would need those planes back at home.
Well, now it's over. Here are some notes I've made:
-Strike as fast as you can, use every unit wisely.
-Don't mobilize yet. In a victory point game, that would be fine. But I need a couple turns to build culture in conquered lands, in China and Australia primarily.
-Tanks are your best friends. Combat Engineers don't work well for the Axis in this one; they're slow. Later on, you'll want Marines to invade Dutch islands, then more tanks and perhaps some combat engineers then if you get to Australia.
Here's a look at the empire right now:
There was little in the way of enemy retliation. Any resistance was stamped out. A destroyer near Rabaul sank, though. A submarine sank a transport presumably loaded with troops at Wake Island. Our scientists begin discovering better tanks, and will be finished in May of 1942.
January, 1942
I had a little surprise waiting for me everywhere. I did my math and realized that a Sid AI could build an MG Battalion with 22 shields, which is NOTHING! So, of course, they were everywhere.
Take Kunming but lose a lot of infantry, about 5. Zero pilots (which can have zero intelligence) bombed Chengdu and failed miserably. I'm now faced with a dilema: how fast should I go? I decided to slow down just a bit. Attacking next turn sometimes won't hurt... I hope. Capture Wake Island and Puerto Princess. Taiyuan was easy to capture. Kill the Chinese units near my captured cities. I continued the attack on Chengdu, and it is left with a single infantry division that is seriously injured. Tanks were able to capture Taiyuan. Hopefully China will be gone by February.
Now, inbetween turns. I sunk units near Ketapang but lost a battleship. A destroyer near Guam was also lost.
And it looks like this now:
!
