Long Campaign - Japanese

[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

[PatG]

Battle 7
1932
Chinese Communist delay
Not much to say here. I purchased more mortars, a security platoon to watch over the arty park, and some snipers for foot recce.

Support troops were the usual mix of recce and strike

The Chinese were deployed in a thin line across the board. I easily penetrated it on both flanks - in the south with my tanks and in the north with my recce. The main body moved up between the southern edge and a large rice paddy executing a text book flank attack. The recce and tanks shot up the Chinese arty a usual but this time I didn't get the Chinese HQ. Air recce spotted a couple of ATGs so none of my armour got spiked though a couple did investigate the new rice crop a little too closely and got bogged.

Actual combat was pretty much as expected with the artillery suppressing the Chinese as they ran to re-take the VHs while my infantry shot them to pieces.

Post game:
The 37mm have proven far too vulnerable to artillery - two died this game under mortar fire while their mules survived unharmed - so they were all exchanged for AAMG. I added a 150mm off board platoon to be reserved for counter battery.

The R&D boys have finally come up with some locally produced tankettes so the large So-Mos were traded in for lighter smaller Type 92s.

Next game: 1933 - Delay.

[Sgt_Walrus]

Great stuff Pat
Just read the whole post in one go and was grinning the whole time.
You have the game well under control bro...you should be playing PBEM, if you already aren't, and trying your skills on some human opponents....there's never a dull game against A Blitzer.
www.theblitz.org

Good luck for the next battles

[PatG]

A little perplexed at walking over the Chinese when advancing and getting my backside handed to me when defending, I decided to do a little reading up on the IJA. Contrary to the Kangaroo riding Canuck heavy infantry I'm used too, the IJA is almost entirely light infantry! Yes, blindingly obvious in retrospect.

My tactics in advance and meeting engagements have been pretty much spot on for light infantry. It is in the defense that I have mishandled my gunjin. In the straight up defense, I set my troops up as a "shield" to block the Chinese advance rather than use them as a "main-gauche" to deflect and redirect the attack. My superior troop quality allowed me to get away with using a local static defense in advancing and meeting engagements. I won't be able to get away with this went facing Marines. When I tried to do the same on Mud Mountain, complacency lead me to think that the lack of supporting fields of fire would not be a problem - after all it had worked before. My failure in the city defense was an out-right misunderstanding of my force structure and capabilities. Thank the Kami that I'm only sending virtual gunjin to a virtual Yasukuni - and that I don't have to engage in virtual sepukku to atone for my disgraces.

So - many lessons learned and much fun had. The Chinese are advancing in the next battle - let's see if I can put all my reading to work.

[PatG]

Thanks Sgt. - though I'm going to have to get my sh*t together before I run into any diggers. Matilda Frogs are a bit unpleasant.