GD1938 Game 15

[ironduke1955]

The Italians are pushing towards Tunis in North Africa, also the area east of Marseille was captured. Milano continues to suffer under allied shelling.

[cpdeyoung]

With such excitement in the great European war Japan hesitates to report that our campaign against the Western corrupted Chinese leadership continues. We made incremental progress, and brave Chinese did well in offense and defense, but in such a poor cause. The Chinese managed to destroy one of our headquarters in a bold counterattack. The general staff must be very careful to guard against probes from the Chinese into our lines. Their counterattacks reveal strong forces.

On offense we find the defenders with a good mix of conscripts and riflemen, with plenty of support weapons. The numbers of troops in the field seem so large. We have had to raise troops to replace losses, and are upgrading our troops where we can afford it to level 2 riflemen. We do not have the resources to upgrade a large number each month, but we work on it.

[cpdeyoung]

Another turn of conflict in China. We are not sure what to make of the British troops we see in China, and the Chinese troops we see in Hong Kong. Our troops have been told to carefully avoid the British, but to avoid mishaps they really should pull back.

Everyone was attacking this month. We lost almost the same number of rifle/SMG units as the Chinese, but managed to push them back a bit. Our fleet bombarded the coast, and there is an interesting little air war going on, but nothing on the European scale.

[ironduke1955]

Bratislava was captured the last of the Czech cities, giving the Germans a much needed supply of Coal and by the miracle of coal liquefaction Oil.

[ironduke1955]

The Germans have gone on to invade Poland, capturing Krakow and Danzig. We are still waiting for confirmation from the Soviets that they want peace. We have offered peace but as yet no sign that the Soviets will accept the Olive Branch.

The Italians continue the Advance on Tunis, also badly mauling a British armored unit advancing near Benghazi.

In the East we hear of great deeds performed by the Japanese army.

[cpdeyoung]

The Japanese campaign in China continues to prosper.

Great Britain is tied to the reduced fortunes of the Chinese nation, and rather than tending to its own business in
Europe is rattling sabers in Asia. If Great Britain wants a conflict in Asia over the scraps of China she should
declare war, or step away from the areas of contention.

Japan, for its part, does not want a broader war.

[LJBurstyn]

The USA continues it's policy of isolationism. Nothing else to report. Except disbanding OLD type units and replacing with newer units SLOWLY.

[falco148]

The Chinese continue to resist the rapists and pillagers who go under the name of the Japanese 'empire'. We will fight on until the last man if necessary. Beware the oncoming storm Japan, the British & ourselves are not the only enemies you are going to face in the future. You may think it looks good for your 'empire' now but as the old saying goes....'what comes around goes around'. The inevitable force of nature known as karma will come around and bite you in the ass eventually. Think hard on that fact.

[cpdeyoung]

We are certain the Chinese Military need not "fight to the last man". Your Western masters will gladly enroll Chinese troops in their war machine. There you and the other Imperial lackeys can pretend you are fighting for yourselves, when actually you will be fighting for the master. When you cross the border be sure to ask the residents of British India how to serve properly. Long ages of colonial domination have led the master to expect a certain set of manners from their servants.

You warn of possible threats of war to come. Our foreign ministry and military staff evaluate foreign militaries continuously. We have gone out of our way to assure Great Britain and her possible allies that we do not desire war, but we certainly strive to be ready. If they bring war to us you may be assured it is not because of their sympathy with defeated China, rather it will be the same mercantilist/colonial desires that have driven them to enslave you for so long.

China will exist after you have joined the Imperialists. Millions of Chinese citizens will live, work and join in the defense of Asia from the same old colonial powers you now embrace.

[falco148]

Well, it looks like your policy of 'intergrating Asia' is working so far. Or at least until I learn how to play the game properly...lol

[cpdeyoung]

The Japanese government discussed ways to form an alliance with your country, but at every point your leaders were so active in prosecuting the war, and you were so active in bringing in outside powers, that we could not find a way. A study of history shows that our peoples in situations like this do not form lasting, productive alliances.

It is curious that our doctrine of "Asia for the Asians" comes so close to "Asia for the Japanese". If your forces and resources decline to a point where your leadership seems trivial there are other venues open where your talents may be matched with a more propitious situation. The defense of China is best done with the close cooperation of the USA, where leadership is one. The Chinese alone have a hard row to hoe.

[ironduke1955]

September 1938 Germans/Italians

The Soviets refuse to accept peace terms, in fact they refuse even to speak to the Germans all overtures made to the Soviets have been received with Stony silence. So we presume War is the only likely outcome.

Warsaw has Fallen only the minor cities to the east in Poland hold out.

No Change in North Africa the Italians neither gaining or losing territory. The lack of naval activity is disconcerting, no Royal Navy or French Maritime vessels have been spotted.

[cpdeyoung]

Japan hopes her close neighbor, the Soviet Union, and her potential ally, the Third Reich, can find their way to peace.

Japan herself is at peace, as the Chinese government has crumbled. The feuding warlords could not come together to pursue the war. Curiously the only resistance to Japanese units rushing into the vacuum is stragglers from British units who are probably raiding the peasants. To the degree Great Britain has influence over these outlaws she is withdrawing them. Japanese forces have orders to attack them wherever found.

The Imperial Army has announced a reorganization. A significant new organization, called "Alert defense", has been formed to secure our territory from surprise attack. The Germans mentioned a lack of intelligence on naval movements. Japan has noticed this too, and our precautions are driven by an assessment of the rapidity with which naval and air forces can strike without warning. Alert defense units will provide the means to make any enemy penetrations shallow and brief.

[LJBurstyn]

I don't think I've ever seen a country lose so early....The wars may be over before the USA even considers leaving neutrality behind.

[Twotribes]

That happened to me in one game.

[ironduke1955]

In Falco's defense no one explains that the conscripts that make up the bulk of the Chinese army are not able to make successful attacks, unless they soften up the Japanese unit/units with Artillery and Air attack first and even then don't attack Japanese Armor or large stacks, only attack Japanese infantry units and only if there is only one or two units in a hex, and only if you have overwhelming odds[:)]. If you don't obey the above rules you can lose massive numbers of conscripts very quickly and your army will melt away. You have to push for tech light armor three and produce them in large numbers. Then you can start to hurt the Japanese. There are a bunch of other do's and don'ts, but that's just judgement calls.

And of course if he felt he was defeated and I have to agree with him that he was, and applaud him for doing so, surrendering is a very historically accurate thing to do, also it allows the other players to get on with the game without waiting for a less than motivated player to play his turn.

Germans/Italians October 1938

The Soviets make peace in a last minute negotiation, both Germany and The Soviet Union avoid a war both nations would not wish to fight.

Italy continues to place pressure on Tunis and Marseille.

Situation on the Soviet border.

[cpdeyoung]

Japan wishes to commend the former Chinese commander. As the German comments stress attacking without armor is hard for anyone. The Great War made this clear with the machine gun and dug in positions making attacking a costly affair. It is worse with conscripts, but tough even with decent infantry. Yet, with the enemy pressing hard constant withdrawal does not work well either. The breaks went against him.

Japan October 1938

We are no longer at peace as the advance on Kunming found Indian troops claiming they were on French soil. We fought long and hard in our China campaign, and the Indian troops refused to withdraw, so we pushed them out of Kunming and occupied the city. We do not particularly want a war with the West, but we do not want them making Chinese citizens their lackeys either. China and Japan are conjoined nations now joined in Asian brotherhood.

The British lease on their "colony" Hong Kong was declared null and void and the British were made unwelcome.

[falco148]

Yeah, I guess as a newbie I’m an easy target so hit me right here on the chin….right here….I can take it! – lol.

I think on my part too much enthusiasm to take the fight to the enemy combined with having very fragile troops, also combined with a pretty dismal understanding of the supply rules led to the very early demise of the valiant Chinese. Sincere apologies to our erstwhile allies, the British & French. On the upside, I think it will be facinating to see how the world war unfolds with the Chinese exiting so early.

It’s only now I’ve got around to looking at the ‘supply rules for newbies’ on the forum page. As stupid as this may sound, it’s also only now I realize that you can actually manually transfer supply. I think I’ve managed to work out how to do it but I’ll have to do one or two trail runs against the AI when I get the time to get it right.

Hopefully now I can put up some stiffer resistance in the GD38, game 16.

[ironduke1955]

No offence intended without previous experience of PBEM in a game I was not that familiar with, I am fairly sure I would have had the same outcome. What was your problem with supply as the one aspect of playing China is that supply is not a problem as they have a very large resource base. The only need to manually transfer supply is for naval units at sea or Units cut of and surrounded assuming you have the Air Transports to conduct the drops, all other supply is automated.

[RufusTFirefly]

@ Tom:
Dont agree with your comment about supply management for China. Falco is right that supply management is not self understanding. And I found no discription in manual. Supply for Chinese forces might be enough. But you have to look for the transport management. Falco and I played two 1vs1 scenarios (Gothenline, Ardennes) where no thought have to be spend on supply management. It is different in GD1938 as in other large scale scenarios (ETO, WaW). You have to look for enough transports in your HQs, cut off lines and a good command structure that allows supply to flow from main HQs to subordinated ones. You need to know that and manage that, otherwise there is lots of supply at some HQs while others run short and become unable to fight.

@ Falco:
Sorry to see you had to surrender. There was no way the Chinese forces could survive, so it was the best decision to make. As some British forces in China ran out of supply and could not be supplied by China (Tom, this is where supply had to be transferred manually) I was enoyed to see how things turned bad in China and for my forces. Had made a harsh comment in an ingame post. Sorry for that. And shame on the Japanese to exploit this situation and attack my forces although we are not at war. [:-]
I would retreat faster if possible. But how to do when supply is low and movement is limited.
Falco, hope you are still enthusiastic. Good luck in your other games. It is always good to see new players enjoy this game and become a member of this community. There are a lot of games to play and a lot of fights to win (or sometime to loose).