December 1941
Massawa was captured a few turns ago with the help of UK field artillery and now the supply situation is a complete mess as the British heavy bombers are reducing Addis Ababa and Dire Dawa to ruins… Our medium bomber wing left the area for a time of rest and refit at home. The South Africans are pushing from the South towards the Capital: the situation in Abyssinia is becoming serious
One thing that I learned from my previous game was that the War with China will be a long war of attrition. Studying the terrain we conceived a simple plan of attack in two phases. The NM objective city of Chengchow is a relatively accessible target that opens the road towards Sian, another important NM Objective and Industrial Center. But the city of Ichang is a hard nut to crack that acts as a thorn on our side as we push North from Wuhan towards Chengchow. For this reason we will concentrate our efforts in attacking first the Capital Chungking.
In the first phase of operations (red arrows) the emphasis will be placed in the South with the city of Nanning and the southern approaches of the mine town of Kweichow as objectives. After the fall of Changsha the main force will be divided in two. One pincer advancing through Hengyang and Kweilin towards Nanning and the other pincer will advance directly West taking the road leading to Kweichow. Some Chinese pressure could be expected from the Chengchow area and a consequent force will be ready to defend this sector of the front.
In the second phase of operations (blue arrows) the attack towards the Capital will take place from two axes: North from the general area of Kweichow and directly West from Ichang. After the fall of Ichang the NM objective city of Chengchow will be simultaneously stormed to divide the Chinese forces in their defensive efforts.
February 1940
The first objective cities of Changsha and Hengyang are now in our hands. At the same time, deviating from the master attack plan, we advance cautiously some of our troops from Wuhan in an attempt to envelop Ichang from the North. They will have to cross the river and establishing a bridgehead. This advance will cause a reaction from the Chinese in the area, so we hope no further reinforcements will reach the South sector of the Front. Most of our troops are now upgraded to Infantry weapons level 1.
March 1940
In the South area of the Front we reach the town of Kweilin and prepare the assault.
Deviating again from the master attack plan we attack in force and successfully create a bridgehead southeast of Ichang. The Chinese HQ stationed in the town is damaged in the process. The push West from Changscha is halted for a time as the troops concentrate their efforts around Ichang.
April 1940
The town of Kweilin is attacked and the Chinese defenders are destroyed but we are unable to enter the town due to the mud. The Chinese are not able to reinforce Ichang as there is no railroad link to the Capital and are now in a difficult position… They have their main AA units in the South Front but still no troops are upgraded.
May 1940
The Chinese keep pouring troops in the defense of Kweilin and they are dutifully destroyed… but we are unable to enter the town for the time being. The important city of Nanning, our main objective in the first phase of operations, is invested near the coast.
The town of Ichang is by now almost entirely encircled, one of our armies successfully crossed the river and established a bridgehead North of the town attacking the defending Chinese HQ in the process.
June 1940
The Chinese counterattack in force from the Chengchow area destroying one of our Armies and isolating another North of Ichang. We try to restore the situation with the help of our aviation, destroying the Ichang defending Chinese Infantry Corps but are unable to free our comrades that will be destroyed out of supply next turn.
The Japanese pressure against Nanning continues near the coast.
July 1940
Kweilin is finally captured by our forces after many months of fanatical Chinese defense. The situation around Ichang is now under control and we position our troops for the final attack next turn. The first artillery unit arrives China via Shanghai with made in Japan heavy artillery tubes.
August 1940
Ichang falls after a brief fight as expected and we exploit the breakthrough towards the big Capital surprising in our fast advance a Chinese HQ that is heavily damaged and swept aside and an engineer unit building forts outside the big metropolis. Although the issue of the Ichang battle was never in doubt it has been a costly battle where we lost 2 veteran armies. Our aviation was the key to all our operations, enjoying total air supremacy and inflicting damage at will along the whole front. Ichang was indeed a hard nut to crak.
September 1940
The Chinese have suffered many losses in the South area of the front and they retired and regrouped around Kweichow and Chungking our troops in hot pursuit. One thing that happened when we approached the Capital is that it started the activation of the Yenan Communits and they are a respectful force. At this moment we started our second phase of operations of the master plan of attack. We abandoned the drive towards Chungking from the East and instead focused our attention towards Kweichow and Chengchow. Knowing that the Communist will arrive soon we wanted to secure the Central area of our Front, so the troops involved in the Ichang battle were redirected towards the North to start the new battle for Chengchow.
November 1940
The mine complex near Kweichow is captured and the whole area does not appear to be well defended. Further North Chengchow is about to be stormed after defeating several Chinese troops defending the approaches.
January 1941
Kweichow is captured and the Capital Chungking is now our last objective in the area.
The Chinese communist are detected defending the Sian approaches. A second artillery unit arrives China via Shanghai with made in Japan heavy artillery tubes. The Chinese are still fighting with troops not upgraded to infantry level 1.
March 1941
We advance past Kweichow towards Kumming a NM objective and Industrial Center. A strategic bomber wing arrives from Japan and starts pounding the Chengdu mine complex. Our tactical and medium bombers are now killing machines very experienced and upgraded to level 1.
May 1941
Chengchow falls in our hands and our troops are ordered to stop the advance as Sian will not be attacked: a blocking force will be left behind and half of the Army Group will be redirected towards new objectives outside China as new wars will begin soon against the Imperialist Powers!!!
June 1941
Germany attacks the USSR!!!! Japan redeploys troops to the Russian border near Vladivostok under the command of our best General. We begin to upgrade to level 2 infantry weapons and the first Chinese units are found upgraded to level 1 infantry so we are again in the lead…
Our victorious troops cross the mayor river defending the Capital Chungking and establish a bridgehead. A second strategic bomber wing arrives from Japan and reduces the Chengdu mine complex to ruins while Kummnig is equally heavily bombed. One Japanese mechanized unit arrives in this zone of operations.
June 6 1941
Germany launches operation Barbarossa. The USSR mobilization is 41% and the USA is 39% at that time.
The fact that the Allies arrived in time to help the Finns in the Winter War 1939-40 made the Soviets mobilization to remain in the low 20’s for along period of time, not a good thing when every MPP will be needed to defend the motherland.
As soon as we got the French MPPs after they surrendered we invested all possible chits in Finland to try to bring this country back to our sphere of influence, Japan and Italy also contributing. We got a single 8% hit but that was it, the Allies countered our move and Finland remained at 11% Allied mobilized for a whole year. We won’t count with them for the Great Invasion.
Some notes about the invasion preparations:
• I noticed in my previous game that the DAK does not arrive in Lybia (as in WiE) but does instead deploy in Italy. The timing is also different as in WiE the DAK arrives December 1940 and in WAW arrives November 1940, or that was what i recalled. So I was planning to purchase all available tanks and tactical bombers available in my pool before the DAK was deployed to have an extra unit of both. I got it wrong and the DAK was deployed October 1940 and I could not buy that extra tank.
• In my previous game I purchased all of the medium bombers for Barbarossa but I found that the terrain in this game is horrendous for the invader, specially the roads leading towards Leningrad, and that the tactical bombers will be more useful even though they have shorter attack ranges.
• In this game I decided to keep the antitank chit invested as suggested by some players so I could not invest in longer range for my planes until 1942.
• I was a little late investing in Infantry Weapons and I did not get the 2nd level for the initial attack. I did not want to delay the attack. I was not very worried as no Soviets were detected near the border but we were somewhat delayed as we upgraded our infantry on the march.
• I did not buy and extra German HQ for Russia as I could work very well with the 5 available.
• Our fighters were level 1 and will also be upgraded a few turns later.
• Yugoslavia was conquered in April in one quick blitzkrieg turn.
• The main actors in this initial 6 months of the campaign will be our 7 panzerkorps, 3 Mechanized Panzer-grenadier corps and 2 para units assisted by 6 tactical bomber wings and 3 medium bomber wings.
Army Group North charged with the Mayor NM objective of Leningrad was under General von Rundstedt and included 2 Panzercorps and 2 para units supported by 3 tactical bomber wings and 1 medium bomber wing plus fighters.
Army Group Center charged with the Mayor NM objective of Moscow was under General von Manstein assisted by von Leeb and included 1 Panzercorps, 2 Mechanized Panzer-grenadier corps supported by 1 tactical bomber wing plus fighters.
It was clear that the Soviets were not going to defend the forward area of their huge country and the only troops present were a garrison defending Riga. The important cities of Kaunas, Daugavplis and Wilno were occupied without a fight.
Army Group South charged with the Mayor NM objective of Rostov was under Generals Rommel and Kesselring and included 4 Panzercorps, 1 Mechanized Panzer-grenadier corps supported by 2 tactical bomber wings and 2 medium bomber wings plus fighters and field artillery.
