China/Russia Adventures

[spence]

I remember a lot of threads some months back about balancing the China Theater and an AAR way back where the IJA cleaned Stalin's clock in a couple of months. Seems to me that there's been several patches since such topics were really hot and I was wondering what sort of adjustments etc have taken place.

The Russian Adventure as I vaguely recall involved Japan launching in/around Feb 1942 and taking advantage of the setup and map edges to slice up and digest the Russian Army. The whole thing seemed pretty much divorced from actual Japanese historical capabilities (i.e. gamey). I did sort of think the Japanese Player ought to have more options vis a vis Russia than to just wait for the coup de grace to be administered by 10000 T-34s in 1945 though.

IRL Japan was able to give China pretty much the full attention of the IJA for 4 yrs prior to Pearl Harbor and they didn't knock the Chinese out of the war. In so far as balancing the Chinese Theater of Operations was concerned I recall mention of all sorts of adjustments to the Chinese OOB, supply, fortifications and preparation points. At least some of those were implemented in one patch or another I believe.
Not sure how the players feel about the balance in China now or even how I feel about it since I've not seen how things play out there as yet in my PBEM. My Japanese opponent there is launching offensives on 3 fronts: Yenen, Changsha, and outside Canton. Seems a bit excessive but so far he's only met with success at Changsha. The situation at Yenen is a bit worrisome though.

As I mentioned starting 3 offensives in China after initiating hostilities with the US and the British seems rather much, when they'd been stalemated by the Chinese alone for 3 yrs prior. Reading the book "FLYBOYS" mention is made of the IJA's official policy termed "Local Supply". In the author's description it seems that the only reliable deliveries of supplies that any IJA unit could expect were ammunition. Units were expected to obtain other things via "Local Supply". (This led to some severe problems in New Guinea/the Solomons given the available local supply). In any case I have begun to wonder if "balance" on the Asian mainland might better be achieved by adjusting downward Japanese supply levels in China/Manchuria rather than adjusting Chinese ones upward. I know the Japanese have industry in China that will generate supply (and I don't know how much) but it just seems that if the IJA really wanted to attack in China or Russia a large reallocation of supply would have had to have been made over an extended period. Thus the option to attack would be there but the Japanese Player would be somewhat constrained as to what else he might do (which kinda seems right for a 2nd rate economy/world power in the early 1940s).

Thoughts and Comments?????

[el cid again]

The Foreign Minister of Japan before the war began (I think his name was Togo) said "I go to sleep every night with the Russian Problem first on my mind. I wake up every morning without an answer." There were ways to deal with the Russians, but not and solve the problem of oil supply, once the embargo began (in July 1941). The IJA had plans for better units, and some of these (not most) were implemented. But it had to concentrate more force in Manchuria. Not much more force, however. The Russian situation is bad - map edges don't matter because the Russian position is mainly along that railroad line far from the map edge. Cut the rail line, and you isolate the poor Russians. They can hardly supply by sea - although in fact Japan allowed just that for 4 years! But Japan didn't HAVE to allow it.