DG--Which side?
 

Any thoughts on which side-Jpanense or Russian is harder to win especially if you play the opening sneek attack?

I think the Russians are a bit harder either way. They have the burden of the attack and can't afford as many losses.

As for my experience I would say - neither side is hard to win.

The only threat for Russians are Togo's fleet which may be completelty evaded at least until second Russian fleet appeared and also Adzumo with Yakumo which in fact are the only significant targets. Unless you self will want tough battles you may not even fight with major IJN forces - just sneak by them - and you'll probably win.

Japanese on the other side may be more agressive in they campaing - the main targets therefore are Russian light cruisers. If you could destroy a couple of them through the first attack at PA - the half of work is done. Then hunt them down splitting AC division to parts untill all of cruisers faster 20knots are destroyed. You may then try to catch Russians on they way from PA lost to Vlad or you may not - it's not significant.

The whole game is about speed not armor or guns. Either to run away from enemy or to catch it up. For example now I have only 7 IJN ships left - and I can't catch them even with just 4 BB cause they run away then I appear ;) The war is over...

It depends. Sometimes you don't meet Togo, sometimes you can't avoid him. The Russians have pretty much zero intel on where he is at any given time so can meet him at any time. If you meet him at night, your cruisers are probably going to be hurt if not sunk. If hurt, they have to repair, but are less likely to be able to run the blockade to get into the repair dock. And even if you get away unscathed, you have to shift your hunting grounds to get away from Togo. Plus, running at high speed to escape Togo in the daylight burns a lot of coal, reducing the time you can spend out hunting.

However, this is highly variable. As I said, sometimes you're always bumping into Togo, sometimes you hardly meet him. But I usually lose at least 1 cruiser to him, sometimes more, and he really cramps the style of the others. Most times, however, the damage he does to me isn't fatal to my cause. The real thorns in the Russias' side is the Chitose group of fast, powerful PCs. As the Russians, I make killing them my top priority.

But suppose they succeed in that. Then Port Arthur falls and they have to fight 1PacRon. And they have to do that well enough to have enough remaining to kill 2PacRon.

Anyway, I'm not saying the campaign is hard to win from either side, provided you don't do anything stupid. Remeber what your real objectives are and stick to them, and you'll usually win. However, even if you do that, you could still be unlucky. Nothing is certain in war, and neither side really can afford to lose many of their key units. If you have a run of bad luck, you'll find things a lot more difficult, and bad luck is always possible.

All it takes is 1 hit in the right place to slow you down. Then you'll either be caught and killed or be unable to catch and kill the enemy, depending on th situation.