Long Campaign - Japanese

[PatG]

Game 4


1932 China


Meeting Engagement

39 turns


Japan vs AI Chinese Nationalists


Japanese Forces:


I neglected to mention that before the last battle, the support platoon was changed to all 37mm Type 11 giving me 4 of the little HE chuckers in total.


Given my previous successful integration of armour and infantry I was allowed to upgrade my motorcycles to Type 91 So-Mo armoured cars. The loss of speed will be offset by greater staying power. The endless waves of Chinese triggered a request for some dedicated artillery support. HQ replied with a 75mm battery and another observer team.

Some replacement gunjin were brought in to offset my minimal casualties.


For support, I purchased a motorcycle group for fast recce and an Aichi D3 scout plane for some eyes in the sky.


Terrain:


Low partially wooded hills. Two East-West roads with a North-South cross road about map centre. Moderate hill map South of centre overlooking a clearing to the north with two VH clusters. To the West of map centre along the bottom edge, a paddy field constricts movement. To the East of map centre one row South of the north map edge is a rectangular clearing surrounded by a low hill wall containing the last set of VHs.


The Plan:


Two pairs of motorcycles will charge up the two roads until they find something interesting then report back. Mortars to set-up along forward edge of set-up line along with one ammo wagon. Lead by the tank platoon, the infantry company will advance in column on the south side of the map skirting the rice paddy and staying screened by the central hill.

Infantry guns and support platoon supporting. The company will advance past the central hill then turn north by platoons and hit the enemy rear. One FO to advance to the hill to call fire on the VH clusters there from a covered position. The armoured car platoon will take their shining steeds along the north map edge and advance past the walled field and into the enemy rear area. At the opportune time they will take the northern VH cluster.


The Attack


The attack went in pretty much as planned. The motorcycles advanced to contact and confirmed that the main enemy advance was toward the central VH cluster. The Chinese advance was monitored by the D3 until it was driven off by AAMG fire. As expected , the motorcycles were driven off by the advancing infantry but three of the four were able to rally and took up flank watch positions north of my mortar group.


The amoured cars raced along the north map edge until they found themselves deep in the enemy rear area completely screen from any Chinese forces.


One FO raced up the hill, left it's horses back of the ridge line and crept into position in a cluster of trees. Careful to ensure all safeties were on, they surveyed the mass of infantry below. Plotting boards came out, radios were warmed up and the tekkokaze began.

Meanwhile the main force trudged through the woods reaching about board centre as the FO got into place. The FO reported Chinese troops advancing on a line high up the hillside so the HMGs and Type 11s were deployed as flank security.

Unfortunately, there was a small dead space just beneath the FO position and the FO was surprised and wiped out by a Chinese grenadier group. The second FO dismounted and took up direction duties.


The armoured cars rampaged through the rear areas chewing up artillery then advanced on the northern VH cluster in the enclosed field. As the infantry moved through the bush, the tank platoon moved onto the hilltop and engaged the Chinese troops below who were already suffering under the artillery. A few sections were seen heading east toward my now very obvious mortar positions so the motorcycles were told to keep an eye out and get into mutual support positions.


Over the next few turns, a platoon of Chinese cavalry with some assorted infantry battered themselves to pieces on the MGs of the motorcycle troops. While I had moved the ammo wagon feeding the mortars to safety, the heroic efforts of the motorcycles let me bring it back into service position. Note to self: Do Not Charge Concentrated MGs with cavalry!


While the horse slaughter was underway, the HMGs and type 11s moved into over watch positions and added their fire to the tanks and artillery and the Chinese infantry caught in the cauldron began to route. Safe from close assaulters, the tank platoon swept in, tagged the VH clusters and returned to the hilltop. This drew out fresh Chinese forces from the north and pulled a few battered infantry away from the savage fire of the motorcycles. By this time, one platoon of infantry had worked its way into the bush on the Chinese edge of the central clearing while the other two platoons had set up a gauntlet of fire along the obvious Chinese retreat road. Up in the field, the So-Mo crews were having a tea break, admiring nature and picking off the odd router. They mounted up and tagged the last cluster leaving only a couple of hexes in the cauldron under Chinese control.


As the last of the Chinese troops trickled in from the north, they were split between the So-Mo group and the cauldron - despite their dedication they perished. The infantry company made short work of the routers and annihilated a few Chinese AAMG groups who dared to move up.

With nothing left of the Chinese force, I tagged the last few hexes and the game was over.


Observations


I've now completed my 4th meeting engagement and my tactics really aren't changing much: recce forces to the enemy rear, commit main body to a flank attack and let the artillery hammer on the Chinese hordes. While I'm looking forward to getting my first elites in the next game, a bit more variety would be nice. I may restart the end game until I get something other than a meeting engagement.

[PanzerBob]

Excellent

PanzerBob

[PatG]

Battle 5 - Be careful what you wish for
May 1932
Chinese Communists
China - City
Mission: defend

Map: A big city. Two VH clusters my side of the centre line about mid-board, one further into my zone and North of the centre line. Three roads run east-west near board centre and one other further south.

Finally not meeting the Chinese - though a defend means I'll be facing even greater hordes than usual.
Only 500 support points and the engineers at this date have no flamethrowers.

So trying to be realistic - I am probably in a rest area when attacked by Chicom guerrillas. VH and map arrangement does not justify fortifications. However I have 3 airstrikes so I purchase a recce ship and 2 strike shotai to represent fast reaction support from an airfield in the city. This uses most of my points. Acutely aware that every point I spend only increases the hordes, I refrain from using repair points and purchase a pair of HMGs.

I setup back of the two central VH clusters hoping to stay clear of any artillery. There are fingers of high ground on the three central roads so I set up a mix of HMG, 37mm and 70mm inf guns to cover the roads in depth. Two platoons are back of the central VHs and the third platoon covers the north flank in between the main position and the northern VH cluster. The northern cluster is left undefended - defend everything and defend nothing.

Turn 1 So-Mo ACs drive out along the south flank road. The main force sits tight - catching a few long rounds but out of the main artillery. Aichis scout overhead finding nothing. Tanks move forward to take up positions supporting the infantry

Chinese send cavalry against my So-Mos supported by a couple of armoured trucks

Turn 2 My tanks change course to support the armoured cars which have routed a Chinese cavalry platoon.

Covering smoke lines appear on the Chinese side so I assign my mortars morts to hit one and 2 Aichi to hit another.

Turn 3 the So-Mos keep working over the cav. The Chinese just armoured trucks sit there doing nothing. My tanks are still moving up – BT’s these ain’t

In the Chinese phase, the armoured trucks decide to push forward – good the sooner they will be under the guns of my 98s.

Turn 4 the eagles come in but with no effect other than to spot a few more trucks.

Somewhere around I have some further notes but I just don't have the heart to look for them.

The Good:
The armoured cars supported by the tanks thoroughly worked over the Chinese rear area eliminating a cavalry company and about 6 75mm guns, 2 Stokes mortars, a pair of infantry guns and once again the Chinese HQ. The armoured trucks gave a bit of trouble since my 57mm tank guns would only fire AP at 0 hex range and the HE just bounced off. One tank was skewered by a 37mm ATG in the end zone - have to have a word with the Germans about their sales policies - but those are the breaks.

The Not So Good:
The Chinese seem to have Russian advisors. Apart from the small stuff mentioned above, I was facing multiple off-board batteries in the 100mm class. Over time the Chinese FOs got on target and started hitting my positions. I had to withdraw a couple of sections - they were so chewed up by the arty that I decided it was safer to let the rest ride it out. The Chinese advanced in what seemed to be a continuous wave.

Pure and simple - I was swamped. For every people's militia squad I routed or pinned, six more seemed to open up with reaction fire. The Aichis and artillery swept over the Chinese advance - about the only good they did was to kill a few more of those damned trucks. My line held for quite a while but began to crumble under the intense artillery fire and mass of infantry. When Chinese started molesting the pack mules well behind my main line of resistance, I lost heart and flipped the game to automatic. As I watched the AI beat itself up, all I could see was hordes of little Chicom flags. At a rough guess I was looking at a couple of battalions of infantry supported by a company of armoured trucks, a couple of companies of cavalry and as mentioned a shedload of medium-heavy artillery. I minimized the game and went for a cup of tea expecting the campaign to be over.

On my return I found that the CO, my tanks and ACs and about a platoon of infantry survived.

Observations:
I won't blame the game but I didn't have a chance. Static positions against that many infantry just don't work. Perhaps if I had spent support points for mines, wire and fortifications, I might have made a better run of it. On reflection, a mobile defence would be more effective - sadly the Japanese are not particularily well equipped for mechanized warfare.

The obvious thing to do is set up a couple of practice defence games to work out where I went wrong and how to fix it.

One final strange point - I saved the end game and resumed the campaign under human control. I was surprised to see I received a "decisive victory" - my propaganda troops must be working overtime.

[PanzerBob]

Interesting, I think, Pat, you are seeing one of the strengths of the game, and from what I know of the time and place you were fighting in and how you were trying to defend, the game portrayed your situation well. (imagine the Germans uber advertising something) Given the day, you were in, I certainly would have had some engineering points, mines and wire, especially, with hordes hitting you. Excellent AAR,Pat, hope you are going to continue kicking around in China.

Eternal War(gaming) PanzerBob

[PatG]

Just a side note on my last debacle. I found a late game save file and let the computer play out the end game again. Final score was Japan: 1134 China 4249 for a marginal defeat (annihilation doesn't seem quite so bad now). Casualties: Japan 225, China 709. In an odd bit of statistics, even with two near wipe-outs my total casualties are 702. To get a rough picture of the forces involved, in the player one / player two view screens: Japan had 3 pages of units, China 12 pages.

Now my ego is soothed a bit, it's back to yet another meeting engagement.

[PatG]

Battle 6
This one was played out over 11 days and I neglected to keep detailed notes. Yet another meeting engagement so it was back to the move to the centre, set up over-watch positions and slaughter the incoming hordes. Again, the So-Mos managed to punch a hole through the Chinese flank, move into the rear and chew up the artillery park. The Aichi recce birds helped spot 1 37mm ATG but towards game end two So-Mos ran into another and were shot to pieces. I need to get my recce boys some infantry cover but without turning them into a full fledge combined arms unit.

Points of interest: The Type 89B has a much better AP round so the Chinese armoured trucks were dispatched out of hand. I had a scout unit that wouldn't fire despite being fully rallied and with a full complement of shots. I checked its stats and found it had fired off its entire basic load down to the last grenade - I've not seen that before. The Chinese seem to have the biggest artillery park outside of the Soviets about 6 75mm on board with a couple of mortars thrown in and two off board platoons as backup.

Next game I advance.

[PanzerBob]

[img]/threads/images/Graemlins/Hammer.gif[/img]Em, Pat, Banzai!! [img]/threads/images/Graemlins/Flag_Japan.gif[/img]

PanzerBob