In the south the recce group crept forward. No more exploding bears but a few puffs of telltale arty smoke lured the type 92s forward. Nosing forward out of the tree line, the remaining three tanks were greeted by two loud cracks as two more fell to a concealed 37mm ATG sold to the Chinese by mercenary hakugin devils. The crews did not survive. Gunso Anabaki managed to evade the gun and escape back into the trees. Over the next several turns he worked around the enemy rear looking for the artillery park until his mount was shot out from underneath him. Anabaki however did survive and decided to meditate for a while.
Up north, the MG armed motorcycles and snipers pinned down the Chinese around the northern VH cluster while the artillery was adjusted and the main force regrouped.
Further south, The fire base protecting my mortars came under attack but acquitted itself well chewing up cavalry and infantry but unable to dent the infernal Chinese armoured units. Of the 6+ units in the area, my 70mm IGs did manage to bag 2 open topped armoured trucks the Russian provided ambib tanks were unstoppable.
As part of the plan and to relieve the fire base, my main body started the attack south, retook the northern VHs, crushed more infantry and moved south along the central road rail line. What should have been a knockout punch to the head of the remaining Chinese forces was more like the splat of a bug on the windshield of a Kuomintang truck as my main body slowly evaporated under the ferocious Chinese counter attack.
The Type 89Bs performed brilliantly - having shot off their basic load of HE and in two cases all of their MG ammo, the 89B's put their AP to work slaughtering the Chinese armour - I need to talk to the R&D boys about some ground mount AT.
However this did not prevent the decimation of my infantry forces. Who needs MG42s when you have a thousand rifles? While the main force was being crushed, the sniper group was down to grenades and decided to withdraw. My 2 HMGs had to resort to rifles and also decided to withdraw. So too the Type 11 trench guns did their best but running out of HE also pulled back.
In the south, the fire base also slowly evaporated under Chinese pressure. However thanks to the main body's sacrifice in the north, they too were able to withdraw.
Now back to Gunso Anabaki. Having taken a nice long rest, Anabaki-san realized that things were not going well for the rest of the company. He grabbed as many MG rounds as he could and stocked up on grenades. Heading off through the bush, he made for the southern most objective as yet untouched by Japanese troops. Once there, he used his ad hoc pyrotechnics to create the impression that an Japanese force was deep behind the Chinese lines. (In game terms - he snagged a VH cluster) Gunso Anabaki's actions caused a general Chinese pullback which allowed a significant portion of my forces to withdraw - battered but ready for the next battle. I am happy to report that he survived the action an as the sole survivor was given command of the recce group.
In the end - I pulled out a draw. I am still frustrated by the large amounts of Chinese artillery as well as the over effectiveness of their "makeshift" armour. I was also annoyed that the 150mms I bought for counter battery just sat there doing nothing - I reluctantly used them in the end game to cover my withdrawal.
However, historically the Japanese were bled white in China. Their troop losses there are thought by some to be part of the reason they engaged in acts of criminal brutality - substituting terror for troops.
A final note - it was during this game that I noticed my support were not firing their GLs. I put this down to suppression but post game tests revealed this was not the case. Andy says all is good on his end so something may be broken on my end which might be affecting the campaign in other ways. I may have to reinstall and restart.
