el cid again
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Joined: 10/10/2005
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I think Kereguelen is somewhat on the right track. Not only are Chinese units understrength, or entirely missing, they also are in the wrong places. Starting with a better OOB in terms of what is where is the first step toward a solution. The entire air force infrastructure should be modeled, including remanufacturing capability. But anyway, base forces permitting Chinese planes to air transfer where they really could - which is to say - anywhere. No great concentration around Ichang in the Yangtze Gorge either - that battle was lost in 1940 and those troops are not concentrated in a place where they cannot be fed and have no useful function. As well, I like to add somewhat supply independent guerilla units - which is possible by putting supplies in the LCU itself - understanding that whatever you put in adds every day but it consumes only 1/30 of a supply point per squad on the average when not in combat.
I think Kereguelen is also correct about the map. China benefits greatly from development of its infrastructure and simply from adding locations. Each location becomes a potential fortified position or air base as well as a source of resources, supplies and sometimes oil and fuel. I prefer to MAKE supplies at locations to providing FREE supplies - unless the free supplies represent something unusual not related to what is produced (and then in small amounts - every free supply point per day = 360 tons per year of products - which is a lot IMHO). Thus a place with a significant fishing industry might get 1 supply point per day on top of what industry produces. Even if you get more fish than that, you need to can it or dry it to preserve it - so the "extra fish" should then become "resources" and "light industry" should turn them into supply points. Anyway, supplies in China are sauce for both goose and gander IMHO - and the use of industry to make them means that there can be complications (damaged industry, some industry gets cut in half when captured, etc). At the same time, major population centers should need garrisons - and the automatic attacks on infrastructure when it isn't provided is also a good mechanism to tie down troops (or make it cost).
This is a surprisingly difficult problem to address. Each location should be able to feed a certain amount of troops, but be overwhelmed when the number is vastly greater than that. Also, the need to move resources, oil, fuel, etc tends to stress the road and rail network - because the same network moves supplies. This tends to cause different areas to become sort of "micro-eonomies" - they feed locations in the area well connected pretty good - but excesses of whatever don't do you much good somewhere else - UNLESS you can move them (say by ship - or even by airplane).
Speaking of airlift, China has some of its own. CNAC was the first important mover of supplies from India to China, but ALSO it had a vital role INSIDE China - with aircraft of less range. There is also a minor airline (formerly German using Junkers tri-motors initially) rename Eurasia Airlines taken over by the nationalists - and flying different routes. IF you add civil airlift it is most useful to the Chinese player in feeding critical supply short locations at a critical moment.
Simply adding locations - double or triple them at a minimum - goes a long way - IF one ALSO gives each location appropriate assets that make what that location really could make - remembering that every location in China was to some degree making "supplies" to feed itself - and some of those could be "skimmed" or "taxed" ("squeezed" is the Chinese term). Some locations are good defensive positions - on high ground with a relatively effective 14 meter high wall 10 meters thick - or occasionally actually fortified in the modern sense: give em a fort. Make the garrison requirement related to population - thus a small location has none at all - but any city with millions of people has a significant one - and a population (then) of 100,000 plus is probably the place to start for a small garrision - of 10. Make sure the Chinese have the garrison present too - so they don't get hurt because the new location is "empty."
But a major part of the problem is MENTALITY of the Chinese player. Chinese troops are NOT 'valuable, expensive' things with great political significance as in modern armies. In game terms, they regenerate in 30 days - so they are MUCH MORE expendable than other troops. Learn to take any unit, or remnant of a unit, in a bad situation, and write it off to a purpose - go jump on some road or RR - preferably in the best defensive terrain nearby - and just sit there cutting the LOC. Japan can NOT tolerate loss of main roads and rail lines - and everything "downstream" of the cut is more or less in trouble. Do this often enough and you can render powerful armies vulnerable. Force Japan to fall back on the coast or the Yangtze or Pearl River systems (where it can feed them by sea) - and suck ships into the feeding business - so they are not helping the Japanese hurt the Allies on other fronts. In particular, consider RR vital targets - fight for the RR LOC - and never ever stop sending units to cut them even when they "clear the line." Force them to think they must defend every hex - or not be able to move and be fed by the RR. If a unit is cut off from a good situation and is doomed to die - die on a RR if you can - otherwise on a road. [It will come back in 30 days - pretty fast - better to lose it sooner and then recycle]
Do NOT challenge the Japanese in the air like you have a real air force - until you do. Build experience - stay back EXCEPT where the Japanese are NOT operating in force in the air. THEN become a pain by attacking ground units - attriting them away with the "rain from above." Fly sneaking night raids he cannot effectively oppose. Attack ships in port - a problem in a country where he needs to move supplies by ships to cope with you.
Another thing I do is give the Chinese a real naval capability of the mundane kind that really matters. The ability to move troops and supplies most of all. I put a ROC Naval HQ at Chunking and subordinate a division of troops to it. It is unrestricted. These troops can make riverine raids, cutting LOC at unpredictable points. USN and RN gunboats were turned over to ROCN, so I give them double names [RN/ROCN Gannet or something like that] and base them at Chunking - where they fled to. China improvised its own gunboats - so do that too - arming junks for example. China invented what you might call a junk hull type LCM - it has a bow ramp - and is motorized - and has more range than many "official" LCMs do - so they get them too. China had numbers of river tankers and modern small transports, not just traditional craft. And I am experimenting with the "river boom" concept - in the form of armed vessels that move too slowly to be useful as transports - but can be loaded with troops and - togeter with their organic weapons - present a real problem to Japanese river traffic trying to pass.
One thing that helps is to put in ALL of China's oil, natural gas and coal gas fields - some of them have been producing for thousands of years from depths up to 50 meters using bamboo pipes. The economic starvation of China in game terms is to a lerge degree imposed by poor infrarstructure modeling in the map locations. To a greater degree than other places, each location in China is to some extent self sufficient. Unable to get much from New York or some other distant place, they tend to be able to make supplies from local suff. The first oil industry - at Yennan about 1909 - led to the first oil refinery - about 1925 - causing growth of industry that needed oil and fuel in the same hex - in the 1930s. This happened over and over. Better to be able to use the oil locally than to need to move it kind of thing. If many of these locations are not huge, so much the better. They do not become strategic targets for armies, and they feed local ops just the same as big ones do. What China needs is the ability to feed operations in MANY places, at a MODERATE level - so an invading enemy army that is huge - with an air force that wants supplies - cannot get enough of what it needs. But the local defense forces DO get much of what they need. By stockpiling at vital points, and fortifying them, and then raiding enemy LOC - you create a framework in which a player who thinks like a Chinese general can at least make em worry and consider trade off decisions: "shoud we sent more planes to China?" - instead of raid China for troops and air units to use in the conquest of the SRA.
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China Supply mod Japanese opponent needed - 
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