Restricting the Japanese Navy to Asia not historical.

[DrPostman]

Just came across this when reading the exploits of some Aust/Hung U-boats. One
Japanese destroyer was heavily damaged in the Med. Turns out that the Japanese
made quite a few ships available to their allies during the war:
" In 1917, soon after Germany's declaration of an unrestricted U-Boat campaign against Allied shipping, Japan acceded to a British request for a Japanese Destroyer Division to be sent to the Mediterranean, where some 34 enemy submarines, both German and Austrian, were causing havoc with Allied shipping. That March, the Japanese navy organized a special service squadron (one of two put at the service of her allies), consisting of a cruiser and two destroyer divisions, each composed of four of the navy's newest destroyers. Arriving in Malta in April at the height of the U'Boat attacks, the small Japanese contingent under Rear Admiral Sato Kozo was immediately put to work escorting Allied troopships between Marseilles, Taranto, and ports in egypt. For the next year and a half, the squadron tooj part in some 348 escort missions, involving 750 ships and covering over 240,000 nautical miles. The squadron quickly earned such an excellent reputation for smart shiphandling that the Royal Navy eventually turned over two of its destroyers to be manned by Japanese crews for the duration of the war. The Japanese contingent was even blooded duing the Mediterranean campaign. One destroyer, Sakaki, was torpedoed and lost 59 officers and men, including her skipper, but made it back to Malta and eventually rejoined the squadron. Despite the Japan's force's inability to claim a U-Boat sinking, Allied losses dropped sharply after the Japanese arrival on station....
"Kaigun" by David C. Evans and Mark R. Peattie, page 169. "
From: http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=12618

[DrPostman]

I submit that at least a small force of Japanese ships be allowed to operate in the Med. What
say the rest of you?

Perhaps an event could have a few destroyer units and a cruiser unit show up in Malta later
in the war?

[Kensai]

True. I have even come across a historical photo of a small Japanese naval crew coming to the port of Thessaloniki, some time in the Great War. But it has to be applied with some penalty, otherwise we're gonna have a major unhistorical gamey abstraction. Ideally, we could have the Japanese units lose extra cohesion if out of their supposed areas of operation. This way their sorties everywhere else can happen if a player desires so, but be quite shorter.

What do you think?
(loss of cohesion for units out of their historical areas happens in other AGEOD games as well, including RUS)

[DrPostman]

Makes sense.

[Altaris]

I think for EAW's scale, it only makes sense if some of the Japanese destroyers and possibly light cruisers become available. There weren't enough Japanese infantry to be noticeable in this game's scale, and the naval commitment was just small ships.

I always meant to put an event for the Japanese small ships, but it slipped through the cracks to more important items. Maybe we can revisit this one after the first patch is out.

[DrPostman]

I think for EAW's scale, it only makes sense if some of the Japanese destroyers and possibly light cruisers become available. There weren't enough Japanese infantry to be noticeable in this game's scale, and the naval commitment was just small ships.

I always meant to put an event for the Japanese small ships, but it slipped through the cracks to more important items. Maybe we can revisit this one after the first patch is out.

That would be great. I wouldn't put it as a high priority, but after seeing how
important their effort was to the Allies in the med I thought it should be mentioned.

[Jim-NC]

I would like to see it as an event. As the WE, you can choose to "ask" for some Japanese navy vessels. Then some ships get removed from Japan, and sent to the Med, and are given a special status or nationality or something to allow them to move where ever. Maybe make it cost a few VPs or something.

[Merlin]

That sounds more like decision territory, and it fits the way they were requested. I'd say 2-3 EP's, no cash.

[Kensai]

EP is a nice mechanism to abstract this and other (possibly "what if") decisions. Obviously, the more extravagant and powerful the decision, the more costly in Engagement Points. Extremely crazy alternate reality ideas should be extremely costly in EP.