PLANNED 1945 ALLIED INVASION OF JAPAN by Joni Nuutinen
LINKS:
⊕ Play Store
⊕ Amazon
⊕ free
⊕ local apk
This scenario covers Operation Olympic (landing on Kyushu), which was the first part of Operation Downfall (Invasion of Japan). The geography of Japan has forced the Allies to choose a predictable strategy, and the Japanese have set up their fanatical forces very well to take on the American onslaught. To defend Kyushu Japan is planning to throw in most of their troops, as well as what's left of their naval might. The fact that Japan is starting to run low on supplies is counterbalanced by the extreme supply distances Allies has to deal with, not forgetting kamikaze planes and midget submarines.
⊕ Taking place from: 1945-11
⊕ Map size: 2500 = 50 x 50
⊕ Specials: What-If: How would the planned Allied invasion had gone. Japanese kamikaze, subs and warships
⊕ Released: 2017-01
WELCOME:
Invasion of Japan 1945 is a turn based strategy game set on the Pacific theater during the Second World War. This scenario covers the planned but not-carried-out Operation Olympic, which was the first part of Operation Downfall (second part was Operation Coronet in 1946). You are in command of the US amphibious force tasked with seizing Kyushu-the southernmost of the Japanese home islands-to set the stage for the second stage of the Operation Downfall. The geography of Japan has forced the Allies to choose a predictable strategy, and the Japanese have set up their fanatical forces well to take on the American onslaught. To defend Kyushu Japan is planning to throw in most of their troops, as well as huge number of non-military fighting units and what's left of their naval might. The fact that Japan is starting to run low on supplies is counterbalanced by the extreme supply distances Allies has to deal with, not forgetting kamikaze planes and midget submarines.
VICTORY CONDITIONS:
The object of the game is to control 200 Victory Points as quickly as possible.
QUICK TIPS: Settings: You can change hexagon size, city icons, unit icons, and many other aspects from settings, or via the four round buttons in the upper-left corner of the gaming view. Unit markings: Lower left corner shows HPs (Hit Points), upper left corner shows the number of MPs (move points), right side has several type of markings: warnings on red, attached resources on white, ground information (what's under unit icon) is marked on green. Zooms buttons (Z) are located on upper-left corner. Combat core concepts: adjacent units support each other in battle encircling is often more efficient than using brute-force direct attacks.TMP-system: By controlling Key Tactical Locations (green diamonds) you will gain TMPs (Tactical Move Points), which can be used to move between two hexagons sharing Tactical Route (yellow-green arrow between the hexagons) without losing regular MPs.
CAMPAIGN NOTES:
Victory Conditions: Control 200 Victory Points (VPs), which are gained from the cities.
One unit per turn can re-embark from cities (move from land to water).
Air force units: You will eventually receive SB2C Helldivers units if you control the airfield north of Kanoya (near the middle landing zone).
Terrain and map: Some of the most uneven rugged coastal features have been smoothed out. Forest are marked with palm trees to maintain unified look among Pacific campaigns.
Units involved: At different stages of planning different formations were listed as taking part, so certain amount of decisions had to made which lists to use.
Scope of campaign: Seizing of the nearby small islands are excluded from this campaign, but seizing the entire island added (originally only the southernmost third was target area.
Assuming long duration of the campaign and how critical it was to cause maximum casualties to the Allies, it is assumed that at least couple of divisions would have been relocated to Kyushu from the other main islands.
Naval element: Historically Japanese could at this point scrape together some 40 major warships, while the Allies raised 400 for this operation without breaking a sweat. So to have anything even remotely looking like a combat and not a massacre, one Allied fleet is assumed as reinforcements, and most Allied destroyers are ignored, while the Japanese side has submarines.
Atomic weapons are not included in this alternative history timeline: Maybe their development failed or was slowed down by decision not to pour all those billions in the nuclear project. Or maybe the government decided not to use them, or used them against other countries. It is also worth noting that Japanese cabinet reaction to the dropping of Atomic bombs was fairly dismissive because standard bombing raids - like the firebombing of Tokyo with conventional bombs - produced more damage and higher number of casualties than Atomic bombs. However, losing massive land areas, most of their natural resources, long list of divisions, and most of their armor because of the attack by the Soviet Red Army in Manchuria send shock-waves through Japanese high command and political decision makers, forcing many of them to change their attitude about continuing the war. Had the USSR chosen not to attack in Manchuria to focus on rebuilding their own country, would have given Japan a big area to rely on both for resources and troops.
Due to game engine limitations Hellcats can only be used over water, while Helldivers (more generally referred to as Air Force Unit) operate on land supporting ground combat units.
Why not to cover the entire Japan? This would have made most of the map to be non-combat area, plus the scale of map would have been problematic. In addition, the second landing near Tokyo was planned to take place much much later, and Japanese would have most likely committed most of their troops to fight the first landing, so the rest of the campaign would have been too easy.
Please note that you can turn OFF the entire naval element of the campaign.
TIP: Battleship can bombard coastal dugouts, which certainly can make initial landings easier.
TIP: A completely separate landing can be carried out on the northern part of Kyushu later in campaign with reinforcements (protected by Naval forces).
New: Engineers: Can build roads, minefields, dugouts, hospitals, airfields, etc.
New: Air force unit can Fly In couple of supplies to the closest Supply Depot.
Setting to turn Navy element ON/OFF
New: Japanese submarines to even naval element of the campaign
Scenario Specific documentation that includes links to more generic documentation on how the game series and the underlying game engine works.
To get a feel play the free turn-limited demo version (sideload or Amazon App Store), while screenshots are available on the app stores.
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