War in China

[Shannon V. OKeets]

ORIGINAL: lomyrin

Finally in impulse 5 Japan gets fine weather everywhere and can move to attack.

Groundstirkes in Si-An still failed and in ChangSha as well.

Japan attacks and kills the Communist Warlord northwest of Si-An and gets another hex to attack the city from. one Japanese unit was lost and 2 more disrupted.

Japan also attacks and takes ChangSha suffering only a few disrupted units.

I might point out that the status of the Burma Road has changed, as reflected by its color changing from white to green.

[sajbalk]

Should there be a similar color change for the Indochina roads leading to Hanoi, or are those always considered open?

[Shannon V. OKeets]

ORIGINAL: sajbalk

Should there be a similar color change for the Indochina roads leading to Hanoi, or are those always considered open?

I know of no rule related to those 'roads'.

Are you referring to railroads? I maintain a sharp distinction between railroads, roads, and the Burma Road, because there are different rules for each.

[lomyrin]

I believe that when the Burma road is closed the access to resources shipments from Hanoi are also closed. At least that is true when Japan has closed the Burma road.

[Froonp]

ORIGINAL: lomyrin

I believe that when the Burma road is closed the access to resources shipments from Hanoi are also closed. At least that is true when Japan has closed the Burma road.

Yes, but the Hanoi - Kunming railway stays a normal railway, whether the burma road is open or not. So there is no reason to change its color.

[Froonp]

ORIGINAL: lomyrin

I believe that when the Burma road is closed the access to resources shipments from Hanoi are also closed. At least that is true when Japan has closed the Burma road.

RAW 13.3.3 (bold added by me) :
**********************************
Japan forces closure of Burma Road - the Burma Road is one way that the Allies can transport resources (see 13.3.2, entry option 9) and build points (entry option 17) to China. The Axis can close it by physical occupation but Japan can also close it by diplomatic pressure on the Commonwealth.
If Japan does this, an Allied major power can’t transport resources or build points to China via the Burma Road or French Indo-China until it is at war with Japan or the USA chooses US entry option 24. China can still use the road to transport its own resources.
You only have to roll a die for diplomatic closure of the Burma Road, not for physical closure.
**********************************

But the railway stays a railway. You're just forbidden to transport resources into China via it.

[lomyrin]

It is getting fairly late in July/August and the weather is fine everywhere still. China improves their defensive line in the south but in the North the Communists have a tough choice to make. Should they defend Si-An and risk losing valuable units and being outflanked and suffer the railand road to LanChow cut or should the try to preseve units and the communications link to the west ?

Here they made the choice a little in between, they gave up Yenang but let Mao escape and protect the links to the west while leaving Si-An heavily defended risking 2 good units there. China does know that the next turn will bring in 2 Communist Infantry units and one Nationalist.

[Shannon V. OKeets]

Japan might be discomfitted if partisans appear and are placed on its disorganized air units.

[Froonp]

ORIGINAL: lomyrin
It is getting fairly late in July/August and the weather is fine everywhere still. China improves their defensive line in the south but in the North the Communists have a tough choice to make. Should they defend Si-An and risk losing valuable units and being outflanked and suffer the railand road to LanChow cut or should the try to preseve units and the communications link to the west ?

Japan in the North only have Terauchi as a HQ.
As long as Sian is Chinese controlled, Japanese supply in the direction of the west past Sian will be hard to maintain.
So keeping Sian should be done IMO.

But the communists should also try to prevent the Japanese to outflank them and reach Tianshui or cut the rail by physical occupation, so the move you made looks the best to me.

Maybe Mao should have gone right behind the Wei Ho river, to prevent the Jap 6-4 to cross it.

Maybe you could even have kept Yenan. The Japanese CAV was blocked by Chinese CAV ZOC, so it could not go far from its initial position in 1 impulse.

[Froonp]

ORIGINAL: Shannon V. OKeets

Japan might be discomfitted if partisans appear and are placed on its disorganized air units.

Ah.... this is rule number 1 in the war in China.
Rule #1 : Never leave disrupted air unit out of a friendly ZoC. Always have a land units cover them.

[Jagdtiger14]

Why leave the MTN corp to defend Si-An? Better to have the MIL in Si-An instead. Although It might be interesting to defend the Wei-Ho river as Froonp suggested, leaving an HQ by itself is never a good idea. The MTN corp should join Mao in the mtns.
C

ORIGINAL: lomyrin
Here they made the choice a little in between, they gave up Yenang but let Mao escape and protect the links to the west while leaving Si-An heavily defended risking 2 good units there. China does know that the next turn will bring in 2 Communist Infantry units and one Nationalist.

[runyan99]

Oh man those mountains are ugly.

[Shannon V. OKeets]

ORIGINAL: runyan99

Oh man those mountains are ugly.

The Chinese consider them beautiful.[:D]

[lomyrin]

ORIGINAL: Froonp

ORIGINAL: Shannon V. OKeets

Japan might be discomfitted if partisans appear and are placed on its disorganized air units.

Ah.... this is rule number 1 in the war in China.
Rule #1 : Never leave disrupted air unit out of a friendly ZoC. Always have a land units cover them.

I agree. Here the north front moved too fast and the units were needed to fight so some planes were left by themselves. The turn is not over yet though and right now the partisan risk is only 12 %.

[Gurggulk]

Even worse than the loss of an air unit. Its the loss of a fleet of ships, in an ungarrisoned port on China's coast. One partisan can change the entire face of the war in the Far East if that happens.
 
It may not happen in 100's of games played. But that 1 time it happens, is unforgettable.
 
 
Giving up Yenang, has 1 important side effect, USE die roll. If the Nipponese choose not to enter, another Chicom could be placed back in the city.

[lomyrin]

Rain in the south is back and fine weather in the north.

Japan does not have quite enough units in the north to attack Si-An without some defenders disrupted but the groundstrikes have not been successful with that. In the meantime Yenan fell depriving the communists the use of that city.

In the south a groundstrike southwest of Changsha did work and with HQ Yamamoto support the Chinese line was broken in one hex with no Japanese loss except the immobilization of the HQ for the rest ofthis turn. One Chinese Infantry was lost.

[lomyrin]

July/August impulse 9 and it is storm in the south again. With the Japanese HQ already disrupted there is not much Japan can do in this area this turn.
The Chinese withdrew from contact in their impulse just completed. This gives them a better line again but it also reduces the chances for a partisan to enter the game in China.

In the north japan is only consolidating their positioins and the airfcraft previously exposed to partisans have been rabased to within ZOC of friendly units.

After this impulse the Allies all passed for a 60% chance of ending the turn, it did end on a roll of 3.

[composer99]

Noticed a typo in the Chungking warlord description. It reads "after the dead of Liu" in the second paragraph (if I recall correctly). The correct form is, I trust, obvious. [:)]

[lomyrin]

September 40 starts out with rain in all of China. Japan has initiative and ships more troops to Canton leaving very few other moves possible.
This impulse progresses from impulse 1 to impulse 3 for China and then it will impulse 5 for Japan, all to China's liking.

The newly arrived Chinese troops, 2 communists in the north and 1 nationalist in the south taketheir place on the fronts.

[lomyrin]

September/ October is going quickly at an increase of 2 impulse numbers for each side again. It is already impulse 7 and will be impulse 9 for the Japanese after this.

Japan in their impulse and again tried go gorundstrike Si-An but they failed again and were left not strong enough to risk an attack, perhaps they will anyway near the end of the turn. The south still had rain slowing down movements towards the next attack.

The Chinese then moved more units to better front positions hoping for still more rain.