World at War #102 - Invasion Australia: Japanese Plans

From Decision Games:

The Magazine:

Invasion Australia: Japanese Plans By late mid-1942, the Japanese had seized Singapore, the Netherlands East Indies and Burma. With that, their high command reevaluated their strategy. While the initial objective had been to conquer the “Southern Resource Area,” with that accomplished a possible new goal emerged—the invasion of Australia. Here is our analysis of the factors that led them to forego that attempt.

Articles

The Colmar Pocket The Allied drive across France during the late summer of 1944 came to a stop due to logistical difficulties and stiffening German resistance. In the south, a German bridgehead 40 miles wide and 30 miles deep on the west bank of the Rhine near Colmar, France, was formed in November. It was not eliminated until after much heavy fighting in February 1945.

Santa Cruz: Japan’s Final Lunge in the Solomons Despite having been a clash of great consequence, the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands did not last long. It started and ended on 26 October 1942, as an epic confrontation that turned out to be Japan’s last effort to regain the initiative in the Solomons. US Adm. William “Bull” Halsey was his typical aggressive and risk-taking self as he attacked a numerically superior enemy task force to carry the day.

Velikiye Luki: Little Stalingrad of the North From the start of the Germans’ invasion of the Soviet Union, they identified the town of Velikiye Luki as logistically vital to their offensive across that portion of the front. The town’s status as a rail hub also figured prominently in the Soviet counteroffensive there late in 1942. That fighting turned into a wintery bloodbath for both sides that came to be referred to as the “Little Stalingrad of the north.”

The Game:

Invasion Australia 1942 is an operational level two player wargame covering a hypothetical Japanese invasion of Australia in 1942. There was a debate between the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) and Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) over the course of the war. The IJN wanted to invade Australia, although the IJA opposed such an invasion on the grounds of lack of troops and shipping. In the end, the Japanese decided to launch an invasion of the Solomons with the possibility of moving against New Caledonia. The game assumes that the Japanese won the Battle of the Coral Sea (in May 1942) and captured Port Moresby in New Guinea, turning it into a base to cover the actual invasion of Australia which commenced in July of that year.

There are two sides: Japanese and the Allies. The game system is based on a simplified version of Desert One War and Saddam Moves South, which models ground, air, and amphibious operations.

The central game system is Logistics Points (ATP) which represent sea lift capacity (for the Japanese) and ground communications for the Allies given the distances from the main Allied bases in southern Australia and the actual theater of operations in northern Australia.

Each hex on the map represents approximately 62 miles (100 kilometers) from side to side. Each turn of play represents anything from one to three weeks depending on the intensity of operations. Ground units represent regiments, brigades and logistical installations. Aircraft units represent anything from two to six squadrons depending on the quality of air force and operational tempo. Naval operations are handled abstractly.

22 x 34-inch map and one counter sheet of 176 5/8-inch counters.