After the conclusion of the third round of matches, only 48 teams hadn’t had a loss yet. The ranking in terms of which communities had the most undefeated teams in this category would still see the American community on top, and many other communities having only a handful left. The Ottoman community was the only one who did not have any groups without at least one loss with the Mongolian community not far behind. Both of these had exceptional strategists, but a big factor in their poor performance had to do with luck.

Competition from this point on would be astronomically tough. Even if they were not all the best of the best of their respective communities, all were a force to be reckoned with. After all, one could only rely on luck so much. Those who survived to the 4th round would number only 12% of the original 396 groups.

In the Chinese community, a few notable leaders were still in the game. Of course, there was Baron, as well as Sun Tzu. However, only 2 of the four co-leaders from the Yellow Wang faction made it this far. In an unbelievable turn of events, these two would be facing each other in the 4th round. Li Mu and Bai Qi, who would be fighting each other, had no problems with this arrangement. Li Mu was more than ready to begin the simulation. The two had a rivalry that could not be quenched by anything but spilling blood.

There was 1 group from the Chinese Femme Fatale faction that had managed to stay in the race thus far. As well as another one from the Sun Coalition faction. A few from a few other major factions of the Chinese faction, but it was pretty clear from past simulations that they were now past their depth. As was Baron and his teammates.

A Japanese group under the leadership of Isoroku Yamamoto. The very person who was responsible for the planning and execution of Pearl Harbor. His allies included the flying ace Minoru Genda who also played a big role in Pearl Harbor, as well as Tokugawa Ieyasu. Together, these three were magnificent on the seas (Isoroku Yamamoto), air (Genda Minoru), and land (Tokugawa Ieyasu) warfare.

No amount of preparation could prepare Baron’s team for the amount of difficulty they would face in the upcoming battle. Nicholas Adams would have given Baron some advice, but he could not since he did not have enough knowledge about these individuals. Thankfully, Toyotomi Hideyoshi had a grudge with his fellow countrymen and decided to spill a few secrets to Baron.

Baron believed what he was told, but it would be foolish to trust it so willingly. Once he got into the simulation, he would need to test it out. However, Toyotomi was not the one that Baron was afraid of, it was the other two. Yamamoto held the title of Marshal Admiral, one of the highest titles to be held. With such a huge pool of experience before coming into Planet 4. Genda Minoru, while only being the rank of General, had a strategic mind like no other. Excelling in areas such as naval aviation warfare.

To prepare for this battle, Baron, Roxi, and Jaxon spent some time reviewing the footage of Isoroku’s last 3 battles in the Sun Tournament. All of these records were made temporarily free for everyone to access. It served as a way for more diversity in the tournament and not relying on the same old tricks. Since the Japanese community had mostly been in a state of isolation up until recently, there wasn’t much information about the three that Baron was about to fight.

This wasn’t ideal. But it is what it is. No point in complaining about it. No amount of time would’ve been enough to prepare, but eventually, the time came for both sides to face each other in a simulation. The random setting was applied and it out came the Battle of Leyte Gulf, arguably the biggest naval showdown in WW2, and quite possibly in human history. Not good, already they were disadvantaged.

This setting was right up Yamamoto and Genda’s wheelhouse. They would be controlling the Japanese force. Although they were numerically inferior to the American fleets, they had the added benefit of being able to command their soldiers more effectively. Since they were Japanese as well. An advantage that Baron, Roxi, and Jaxon did not get to enjoy in their last simulation.

However, their biggest advantage at this point was that the naval air force of the Japanese fleet were all beginners as only a little while prior, all of their experienced pilots went down in another battle with the American navy. This, coupled with the fact that the Japanese navy already suffered major blows the past few months meant that morale must be at an all-time low for their opponents.

The battle of the Leyte Gulf consisted of approximately 200,000 individuals on both sides with the American force overwhelmingly surpassing the Japanese. America’s 8 fleet carriers to Japan’s 1. 8 light carriers to 3. 12 battleships to 7. 24 cruisers to Japan’s 13 heavy and 6 light cruisers. 166 destroyers to 36. 1,500 planes to a measly 300. There were many more examples, but those were the biggest examples. On paper, there should be no way for the Japanese to turn the tides and force a decisive victory on the American fleet, but worse upsets have happened.

Baron, Roxi, and Jaxon knew that though the navy under them was near-invincible, they would be fools to take the opposing side lightly. Any number of miscalculations could spell their defeat. If Baron was in Isoroku Yamamoto’s position, there would be no chance he would engage in a head-on battle. Even novice strategists would know that was an extremely bad idea.

That said, Baron had no idea what kind of crazy ploys Yamamoto, Genda, and Ieyasu would concoct. He would likely not know for some time, so he focused his efforts on drawing as many battle plans as he could. Training the troops, in this case, wasn’t necessary since the American troops were already somewhat experienced. However, getting them used to his fast and little-to-no room for error margin type of strategies would still be a smart idea.

Jaxon would be put in charge of the naval air force seeing as he is the most experienced in this facet of war. Baron would once again be the supreme commander as he had been the past few matches. As for Roxi, she was sent back to American soil to develop a few instruments of war that she knew would be extremely helpful in this battle. Roxi decided to do this because she knew she was not much help as she is now. Going to develop weapons would be the best way she could contribute to the simulation.

As the days passed, so did the deadline for the start of the war. Baron and Jaxon received reports that the entire Japanese fleet veered off course and returned to the island of Japan. If Baron had to guess as to the intent of this move, he would guess that Yamamoto and his team were trying to buy time. If they remained docked on Japanese soil, they could slowly build up their forces to match the American navy. This was 6 days before the start of the simulation.

A few days later, more news reports came in outlining that all Japanese forces had, except for a few strategic positions, left their conquered lands of the Philippines, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Dutch East Indies (present-day Indonesia), and various other occupied territory and all congregated back to Japan. This was something that Baron had never even thought possible.

Instead of engaging in a losing naval battle, Yamamoto and his teammates had made it so that if Baron wanted to win, he would have to invade the Japanese homeland. At this point in history, the Imperial Japanese navy may have been weakened, but the land forces were still quite powerful. What Japanese forces were outside of the nation were stationed in areas where there were large deposits of natural resources for building weapons of war. Something that the Japanese island did not have much of.

Baron effectively went from a simulation to destroy a crumbling Japanese navy to ending the Japanese’s ability to be a major power in World War 2. Things just got a whole lot more complicated. He was quite familiar with the Battle of Leyte Gulf and how the events folded, but he was now forced into a battle that he did not know anything about! This was dangerous, anything could happen. A brilliant plan would need to be thought out.

Naturally, the first matter to attend to when the battle started was the removal of any and all Japanese forces on any Imperial Japan occupied lands. This was to sever the transfer of resources to Japan. Just in case, a naval blockade of Japan was issued as soon as the battle started as well.

Invading Japan would not be an easy task. From their pride to their earlier success in kicking out European powers from Southeast Asia, enough regular Japanese citizens would side with Yamamoto. This would allow Yamamoto to select from a pool of potentially millions of people to fight for his cause. Somehow, Yamamoto had turned his overwhelmingly disadvantaged hand into something he could very likely win with. A brilliant tactic.

Creating a naval blockade on Japan was simple enough. Kicking out the Japanese invaders took a couple of weeks but was simple enough. Invading was a different matter altogether. Baron was not expecting to invade Japan and therefore had not drawn up plans to deal with such an unpredictable turn of events. Now that no one was able to get in or out, an information blackout was issued and little to no information was coming out of Japan.

For a strategist, a lack of reliable intelligence could have detrimental consequences. Baron knew that to engage with his current force and win would be fairly difficult. That was why Baron brought in some extra firepower. Now that some of the other armies and navies of the United States were free from fighting Japanese forces, they were brought in to help with the siege of Japan.

At a very casual estimate, Baron’s forces were now one and a half times what they were before. With that, and the battle plans that he had decided with Jaxon and the other NPC strategists, they began to launch an invasion of Japan. 5 main islands made up Japan. Honshu being the biggest with Tokyo as its capital, followed by Hokkaido the northernmost island, then came Kyushu the southwesternmost island, then Shikoku and Okinawa who wasn’t very close to the other main islands.

Baron determined from the very beginning that Okinawa did not need much seeing as it was relatively distanced from the other islands. So just a small force should be enough to occupy and keep under American influence. Shikoku and Kyushu were the two islands that resided just southwest of the biggest island Honshu. The plan for these two islands was to send two separate forces each to attack one of their biggest ports; Fukuoka port for Kyushu and Takamatsu port for Shikoku.

There was a plan for Hokkaido and Honshu, but given how crafty his opponents were, Baron was almost certain that he would have to redo his plans before he advanced any further. For now, the three smaller islands’ invasion plan would be played out. The other two would have to wait. The naval blockade of the islands of Japan was temporarily lifted. This allowed Baron and Jaxon to move in with their separate forces.

Baron would be in charge of the takeover of Kyushu while Jaxon was assigned Shikoku. Truth be told, even though they only brought a tenth of their entire forces, each, it was overkill. Their choice in going down this route was to make sure that there was no way the Japanese forces would be able to resist. No upsets would be happening on these two islands, not with this level of power that they held.

Just as they had planned, nothing out of the ordinary happened. Only a few defensive lines were present. With the firepower that they held, Baron and Jaxon did not have much trouble getting their jobs done. After two weeks and mostly successful campaigns, both islands were on the brink of falling to the American’s hands. It was at this point that the order was given for the remaining fleet that had done nothing but watch the last little bit to perform another naval blockade. This time, it would only envelope Hokkaido and Honshu. Cutting off Shikoku and Kyushu from the two biggest islands of Japan.