IJN: Battle of Java (Land)

[Longasc]

After a glorious victory at the Java Sea Battle that was surprisingly easy with the recommended mix of ships and tac bombers (1x Yamato, 1x Tone (+1 more Tone later on), 1x erm Riujyo or so size 2 Carrier, 2x Destroyer plus 2x dive bomber and 1x torp bomber) I am not on mainland Java.

The bonus goal is to conquer the Island in 30 turns, but I am blinking at conquering it in 40. I have no idea what resistance to expect?

General advice and warnings are always welcome, dear Admirals/Generals/Mercenary Captains.

[HistoryNerd]

Focus on the trucks. Seriously.

Use your fleet as heavy artillery to take the first city in the north, while you press in the south. As you continue to push east, make sure to move your fleet to secure the north eastern bay, where some reinforcements spawn in. Above all else though, focus on the trucks, they're annoying, fairly well armoured (apparently) and congregate in the south east corner, where the AA is heavy.

SHAMELESS SELF PROMOTION TIME: Feel free to check out my video series on the Japanese campaign. I'll link you to the start of my Battle of Java. Be warned, it's a 4 parter, and the only bonus objective I miss is the 30 turns, but it might give you a good idea about what you're facing.
Add watch?v=cyr4Nt8dINk to the typical youtube . com address, apparently my shameless self promotion was too spamy.

[simcc]

My version on kamikaze difficulty play IIRC, no access to my data atm due to working time hahaha

Air power - 4 tac bomber on northern to take out battery and ship, 2 stra bomber to support south advance, hawk(captured) fighter to cover air with Dutch AA support and a few AA

Naval power - only deploy Yamato and Tone (Mogami preferred but on Kamikaze I play safe getting better def cruiser) support north coast bombardment targeting AT then AA then infantry. Watch out for mines

Land power - 3 force assault, north zone, 4 infantry with engineer, after taking town split 2 inf north to meet up with reinforcement and 2 inf and eng to flank the brigdge and capture that AA Dutch truck.
- center force, 2 tanks with an eng to cut off center army meet up in AA Dutch car town for airfield push backup by aux infantry, leave some infantry behind to clear out trap defenders
- south team, 4 arty, AA and 3 marine took that jungle road to cut off the entire south force and ambush those trucks.
Good luck speed is key and cut off supply is the key to achieve secondary objective for a fast attack

[simcc]

Beware of the reserve armor force located near south side, that force can move up if you focus center heavy do I place 4 arty south and punch thru them didn't manage to fully capture last town there is some McNasty infantry reserve in there which caught me by surprise should have regroup after clearing armor reserve then proceed to wack that town lost of trucks will be located yhere

[simcc]

Ok more detail on my force as I have my record now hehehe.

Air power (20) - 2 Kanbaku, 2 Kanko (bomb), 1 Hamaki, 1 Hawk and 1 Recon. 4 white planes (bombers) north taking fortress (2) as priority then DD (2) if you finish those ABDA force at Java Sea, beware of a fighter if you go too near the airfield. 3 Green planes south, Recon to scout and attract fighter cover by my own AA and Hawk. Hamaki hammer any target that my Engineer is gonna hit. I don't engage dogfight with Hawk as Kamikaze mode its not worth it as they are strength 13 vs your strength 10 even if you have 5 stars the losses in terms of RP is not worth it, use cover fire or AA to soften air target before Hawk engage.

Naval (20) - 5 Tones (prefer Mogami) however again in Kamikaze mode Tone perform better due to defense. Main job of fleet is hammer that town, AT-AA then infantry those that Eng gonna hit. Aux fleet send ahead to finish off that 2 DD in case the bomber need to flee if fighter comes. Trigger reinforcement faster if you knock out the fleet early.

Land (55 + 4 + 4 + 6 = 69) - 3 teams North, Central and South
1. North team - 4 infantry, 1 eng and 2 type 92 Osaka, Recon setup flank support then Eng hit then Inf hit the target clear up like magic. After taking town, 2 inf proceed on north road meet up with reinforcement and hit airfield from North. 2 recon, 2 inf and 1 eng proceed to 3rd and 4th bridge again eng to meet head on but after those recon and infantry have already setup flank position. After 4th Bridge hang in there in 4th Bridge area in case Armor reserve come up. Then proceed to support airfield attack from left side.
2. Central team - 2 Type 95 Ha-Go supported by 2 inf, 1 eng (aux) hit radar zone move on to cut the central army area then leave 2 inf(aux) clean up after cutting of supply. Tank and Eng proceed to take central fortification army #2, again setup eng on front hit with tank on flank, you should be able to run over any single unit defense in a turn. Tank meet up with North Army on 4th Bridge for defense or airfield push.
3. South Army - 3 marine, 1 Teishin, 1 Eng, 4 Type 90 75mm and type 98 20mm. Eng and Teishin clear that fortify army with Arty support 2 hit target 2 hit target behind so the reserve effectiveness is weaken. Eng and Teishin back off after hitting while Marine proceed to clean up then move thru jungle road to cut off those trucks movement and proceed to siege on the last town (lots of trucks and some McNasty hidden). 2 inf (aux) proceed to the lower south to clean up those pocket after your south army cut the supply.

There should be some army point reserve left for you to deploy anything you fancy using or level up. Cut off supply is the key so move fast and beware of those armor reserve, last i fought them is the river crossing south which 2 arty change to AT and crush them there.

Hope it helps

[Longasc]

Simcc, thanks for the detailed report, I could gain a lot of intel and create a plan based on your report. I will take a Yamato though, as I already have it. I have two Tone Cruisers already and might have to expand my Destroyer force in future.

But well, it's mainly a land battle, so let's talk more about that.

Japanese TANKS: The American tanks are better in general, but I find the game is not kind towards tanks in general. Every single AT gun is pooping on them and in difficult terrain they are not faster than walking Infantry either. The only tanks I really liked were those Flamethrower tanks.

The scenario seems so large that I might now rather watch a documentary on TV than tackling the scenario. These large land battles just take a lot of time.

[Longasc]

I just made it - within 30 turns, all objectives completed.
Losses: 2 core Infantry units got killed early on fighting in the Southwest of the map. The Dutch defenders were quite strong, stronger than expected. I only wanted to take the airfield, but it became a longish battle.
The advance east was surprisingly easy. I had 2 trucks left to destroy, but instead of going Southeast I killed a truck near that Dutch Airfield and one in between with tac bombers.
I had little problems to stop and even destroy a counter attack near the British Airfield within the last turns.

Onward to the Coral Sea!