Long Campaign - Japanese

[PatG]

Battle 8
1933
China Hills
Chinese Communist
Delay

I'm going to update this one post as I go along.

The Battalion Intelligence officer reveals that the Chinese will outnumber me about 4 to 1 in bodies on the ground. Specialist anti-armour troops have been raised on the Chinese side but should be readily identifiable by their new uniforms (PLA grenadiers vs grenadiers). He also tells me that recently captured documents show that Chinese platoon commanders usually command one of the rifle sections so any rifle group I see has a 50-50 chance of being the command group. Further, company commanders have an attached cavalry group for communication and local recce so an infantry group next to a horse is also good target. All of this I will pass on to my sniper groups.

A section has just returned from advanced sniper training so I now have four two man groups to deploy.

For my core forces, I exchanged the 37mms for AAMG after the last battle. The So-Mos have been swapped out for type 92 tankettes with 6.5 TMGs and 13.2 BMG they are as fast as the So-Mo and while not as well armoured, are much smaller and more flexibly armed. I have added a 150mm type 89 platoon for counter battery. It is my intent that the type 89s represent air power suppressing the Chinese batteries. I will have to resist the temptation to use them against ground troops.

The terrain is quite rough with multiple rows of hills running north-south. There is a crest line just forward of my setup line with a valley behind then a crescent of 3 high hills - the open end facing towards the enemy. The victory hexes are scattered over the north and south arms - all are weighted the same.

For support I purchased four groups of four marksman to act as small patrols and an Aichi recce bird.

The Plan:
My artillery will set up behind the crest of the hill at the base of the crescent. Well away from any VHs they should be clear of any artillery until they open up. A pair of mortars and the AAMGs have been positioned to fire into the crescent proper. Two groups of marksman are set up in the mouth of the crescent in mutually supporting positions and with cover they can retreat into if needed. The other two sniper groups start on on the deployment line crest and will advance over the central ridge onto the forward slope. The intent is that the marksman will slowly give way delaying the Chinese advance.

The main body lead by all my armour will advance along the southern flank. I will crush the Chinese right wing then roll up his lines by advancing north flanking the Chinese advance. My new sniper groups will provide flank support and engage high value targets. As always the bosozuko in their new tin cans will go looking for tubes to squash.

I hate mud. With the armour leading, my gunjin headed up the south flank. The marksman groups also pushed forward and took up fire positions. A massive Chinese bombardment fell on the empty VHs. By turn 5 the tell-tale lines of screening smoke appeared - with my marksman groups on the enemies side .

For the next 5 turns, the main force picked its way forward unopposed. The Aichi spotter bird picked up a few infantry and quite a few armoured trucks and a couple of borrowed Russian amphib tanks - so much for the encyclopedia test saying the Chi-Coms didn't have armour - they have more than I do! My marksman began to engage scouting elements - taking no more than three shots then pulling back.

Around turn 10, my main force ran into the first opposition in the south. About halfway across the board, the tanks shot up some cavalry. The flanking sniper groups saw a few infantry toward board centre and began suppression operations.

By turn 20, it was obvious I was going to be crushed - again. Faced with the usual mass of infantry, my attack stalled and began to be enveloped. A couple of snipers shot off their basic load and had to pull back. The Chinese artillery didn't get into the game but got enough rounds on target to be annoying. I used smoke and area fire extensively which proved moderately effective but still the Chinese waves crashed against my lines. Up north the marksman were performing very well, stalling the whole Chinese attack with minimal losses to themselves.

So again I flipped to auto-pilot. The Chinese were a solid bar of yellow 2-300 metres deep except for a small strip along the north edge. Multiple gun positions were scattered across his rear area like cherry blossoms in Spring.

At his point, I was not having fun and not learning anything so I terminated the game.

[PanzerBob]

Interesting, awaiting your SITREP

Eternal War(gaming) PanzerBob

[PatG]

So here's the problem: In the advance or meeting engagements, I have no problem beating the Chinese so infantry toughness etc is not a problem - in fact it may be too low at my current ability. However I cannot defend against the sheer mass of infantry and artillery the Chinese can put into their attacks.

Possible answers:

1) I suck at defense. This is the most likely my source of problems yet I can play a fair defensive game in other match-ups. I may not have learned to use this particular force in the defense properly.

2) My map is too small. I am currently using a 80 hex long by 40 hex high map. While more than adequate in the advance, it may be forcing the Chinese to unrealistically bunch up. Both times I flipped to AI control to look at the Chinese forces - all I saw were ranks of infantry shoulder to shoulder and many hexes deep.

3) The pick lists are "broken". I am reluctant to suggest this but based on the large amount of artillery and armoured trucks the Chinese are getting on top of the infantry hordes, they may be running out of options at the points level I'm playing at.

Further investigations:
1) Take the same Japanese force and put it up against 1940's Marines or Brits. This will test my ability to defend against a qualitatively similar enemy and help highlight any pick list problems.

2) Increase the map to 80x80. This will give my smaller force more room to maneuver and allow Mao's juggernaut to spread out. If defending against the Chinese on 80x80 proves as easy as advancing, then reduce the map to 80x60.

[valo2000]

iam playing a germna long campaign know and i face some serious trouble against the french tank force. But i used much bigger maps then you, at least 100x100.

what i did were guerillia tactics.i started with a defense line and retreated behind the vh when the french monstertanks came slowly taking them out.When a vh is taken i countrattack and so the ai runs back and forth between the vhs. i know it is unrealistic but it works somehow.

so bigger map is defintively better and far more interesting imo.

[PatG]

Thanks for the advice - it's good to know I'm not alone.

[PatG]

So another 80x40 test:
1942: Germany delaying against Chinese hordes. Falschirmjager moderately supported by Pz III managed a draw. However, the VH's were clustered well back against the German edge so the Chinese had to advance the whole board.

Ran the same setup - this time the Germans chose Landsers well supported by armour but with the VH's spread out along the setup line. Result: Marginal Defeat.

One more test - 1942 Chicom advance against Japanese delay but on an 80x80 map - result: Marginal Japanese defeat. However, the AI chose to defend all across the map rather than concentrating its forces so I'm not displeased. The Chinese hordes were distributed much more realistically. It looks like I just need to move to a bigger map.

Final test
80x40 1942 Marines vs Chicom advance.
Marines had moderate armour support - 6xM3
Result: Marginal Chicom victory

Conclusions:
So it would appear that the pick lists are not too far out of line especially when the opposing force has armour. Armour is a big help in general but a larger map allows for more realistic Chinese deployment.

[PatG]

After my first aborted Japanese campaign, I always keep 3 save games as I go through a campaign. The first is the deploy phase, the second is where I save the game as I play through and the third is the end game. So to take a mulligan, I loaded up the end game save of game 7 and rebuilt my forces. Despite setting preferences to an 80x80 map, I was given a 40x80 so I selected the custom map button and loaded an 80x80 European villages map then regenerated it to get a valid 80x80 China map.

My opponents this time are Nationalist Chinese though I don't expect much difference in kit from the communists.

The terrain:
Open country with some woods and moderate hills. A road and railway run north south board centre with another road road running east west about a quarter way down from the north edge. On cluster of VHs is at the cross roads, a second on the road/railway about mid-map and the third about 1/4 up from the south edge and closer to the Chinese lines. I like this configuration as it echoes some the fighting over the South Manchurian Railway.

Forces:
As detailed earlier but given the amount of Chinese light armour this time I chose to retain the Type 11s as I have no better AT at the moment. I added 4 AAMG teams and the requisite mules to carry them. For support, I have taken and observation plane, two strike shotai and two groups of motorcycles.

The Plan:
The main body supported by the tank platoon will advance along the north flank. Artillery smoke will be pre-registered to cover an gap in concealment. Once they are past map centre, they will turn and advance south rolling up the Nationalists.

The recce group - now equipped with type 92s will advance along the south flank seeking to get into the rear area. The two motorcycle groups will rush the two rail VHs hopefully keeping the Chinese attention away from the main attack.

Chu-sa Gyuba awoke in a sweat - the endless waves of Chinese slowly cleared from his head - that was a dream this was another day. "Hatano!" he yelled to his company commander "Get the officers together, we have work to do!" Gyuba shook off the dream but couldn't quite clear the copper taste of blood in his mouth.

[PatG]

Three flares shot into the air like chrysanthemum blossoms. Engines revved, web gear was tightened and the advance began.
In map centre the two motorcycle groups shot forward at full throttle. The southern most quartet grabbed the central VH cluster on turn 1. Pushing forward on subsequent turns, they encountered a group of Chinese cavalry supported by armoured trucks. In a swirl of light horse action, the intrepid samurai dashed in and out of cover blunting the Chinese advance and drawing them into a mortar kill zone over the VH cluster. Supported by a firebase built around the 70mm IGs and the artillery protection platoon, this group is battered but still in the fight conducting pop up attacks over a ridge line to harrass the Chines horse.

The northern quartet ran full out for the northern cluster of VHs, stopping just short on the first turn. They tagged the hexes on turn two and were beginning to spread out to find the Chines main body when they encountered a group of trucks. Between the MGs on the motorcycles and the superior math skills of Sho-i Bunchiki the current number 2FO, a platoon+ of truck borne Chinese were routed and a larger body given a bloody nose. Withdrawing under pressure, they lost the VHs but with support from the sniper group have maintained the line against the Chinese advance.

In the north, the infantry company advanced under the watchful eye of the armour. Go-cho Gushi, the other FO pushed forward a little too quickly to the point where I planned to turn the company south and found himself under desultory rifle fire. With skillful use of smoke and covered by the rifle fire of his transport group Gushi was able to withdraw into cover. The company mortars were set to screen a gap in the tree line behind which I was going to form up the company for the advance south. Fortunately, the smoke was plotted to land near the Chinese Gushi evaded. While the mortars pinned the Chinese, I was able to execute a classic deployment from column to line, advance over a covering ridge line and crush a company of Chinese.

While this was happening, the sniper section was detached from flank security detail and moved to support the motorcycle group. Their long range rifle fire has allowed very light forces to stand up against superior odds.

In the south, the recce group pushed forward encountering some of the armoured trucks harassing the southern motorcycle group. In a bizarre comedy, the trucks and type 92s could only scratch each others paint so decided to ignore each other and move on. Sadly Gun-so Michiro with 18 kills ran into something in the woods and was destroyed in a blaze of fire.

So at turn 13, my motorcycles are holding the line with sniper and IG support, the recce group is huddled in the woods worried about exploding Panda bears and my gunjin are cleaning up a few loose ends before sweeping south. The situation looks good.

[PatG]

A quick update: I ran two Japanese delaying actions on a 80x40 map using roughly the same forces I have been using. Both 1942 AI vs AI. The first against the British was a marginal Japanese victory the second agains Chinese communists was a complete Japanese defeat. I will try again on a larger map but it looks like the Chinese hordes are an edge case on small maps.