The Burma Road

[spence]

It appears that the Burma Road only limits the amount of supply that may flow from Burma to China.
The amount of supply that flows from China to Burma seems to have no limit. If one can open the road/trail from some rail-head in China over the mountains to Lashio then one doesn't need Rangoon (or the Burma railway) to supply a Japanese Army invading India. Just like real!!!!

[Kereguelen]

ORIGINAL: spence

It appears that the Burma Road only limits the amount of supply that may flow from Burma to China.
The amount of supply that flows from China to Burma seems to have no limit. If one can open the road/trail from some rail-head in China over the mountains to Lashio then one doesn't need Rangoon (or the Burma railway) to supply a Japanese Army invading India. Just like real!!!!

The Burma Road is a special feature in the game. If the Burma Road is 'open', the Allied player receives an additional amount of supplies in China each turn (as per the manual). The road on the map works like every other road on the map when it comes to the flow of supplies in both directions.

[Yaab]

Spence, do you suggest, that once China has been conquered by the Japanese, you want to move the Japanese army to Paoshan or Lashio and start invading India from there without having occupied Burma first? It is a long slog through the mountains of Burma plus the Allies in Burma will constantly harass your flank, but supply-wise your plan may be feasible. Interesting.

[spence]

Spence, do you suggest, that once China has been conquered by the Japanese, you want to move the Japanese army to Paoshan or Lashio and start invading India from there without having occupied Burma first? It is a long slog through the mountains of Burma plus the Allies in Burma will constantly harass your flank, but supply-wise your plan may be feasible. Interesting.

My opponent in a PBEM conquered China (not complaining about that although the same foible seems to be at play). In the meantime the "normal" 3 divisions +/- drove the Allies out of Rangoon and central Burma. Now a bunch of divisions and other units have seemingly marched over the Himalayan foothills from China to Burma and are launching a pretty well supplied offensive into India (8-9 divisions ID'd so far). Meanwhile the number of Japanese merchant ships that have even tried to move to Rangoon can be counted on the fingers of one hand. The light industry in Burma is mostly rubble. The supply for this offensive is coming over the Burma Road supplemented by such airlift as Japan possesses. (in horse/mule drawn carts since that's what most of what Japan's logistics organization was composed of). What I find unreal is that the supply rules seem to allow unrealistic extension of a supply network (from a railhead this is like 1000 miles). The US couldn't(can't) even do that.

[fcharton]

Hi Spence,

Whereas many units came from China, I believe most of the supply was drawn from Thailand. The railheads would be in Chiang Mai and Pisanuloke, and connect to Bangkok and Singapore.

For what I've observed in Tracker, supply flow from Kunming is always low, because Kunming is far from Chinese industrial regions (it was pretty much a backwater area before the railways from Chengtu and Kweiyang were built). So it is a little less than 1000 miles, even though I'm not sure it is realistic either.

I think the problem lies with the amount of control the Allies and Japan had over the local economies. The supply draw system seems to assume that they can requisition civilian carts to move stuff around, in proportion to their military presence (size of bases, units, ships...) Whereas this is certainly true for the Allies in Australia or North America, don't even think it held for the KMT in China...

Francois

[Symon]

Hi guys,

Speaking of which, I found a beautiful set of hand drawn period maps of the Burmese transportation network. Done in sections, but each section is available in closeup. Done by the RAF and is equivalent to an aeronautical survey map. "Think" the time frame is late 41 or early 42.
http://113squadron.com/id130.htm

Then there is the official japanese aeronautical survey map of 1943, from the Natl Geographic Society.
http://www.geographicus.com/P/AntiqueMa ... -wwii-1943

Woof !! Cool stuff !! Ciao. JWE

[JeffroK]

Great maps JWE.