Global War : a Japanese AAR

[yvesp]

This time, I going to focus exclusively on the Japanese side of the war, except possibly for major events elsewhere. I'm a bit tired of taking game shots...

Why Japan ? Because it's by far the most difficult country to play, given a competent Chinese opponent that will know how to move his troops, know when to attack and when to retreat. It's also very difficult because it has to shift focus in the middle of the war, but prepare for it beforehand. And of course, it dearly lacks resources, most importantly oil ; saving oil for the late parts of the game is a necessity and must be accounted for early, when oil still flows!

I've writtent two AAR. In the first AAR, I was playing again after 15 yers not playing... I rediscovered the game. I also discovered how different from the boargame playing Japan in China was.

[Blue Army]

Looking forward to it. I will be watching this one too[:)]

/Michael

[yvesp]

For exemple, at a time, the two resource in South China were seen as easy pickings for Japan.

Easy pickings ? No. Consider the map.

What do you need to use these resources ?

1) You must take the hex of course. While the resource in Kwangsi is somewhat accessible (you will have to fight through mountains and rivers to get to it though), the resource between Hengyang and Shangsa is inside the nationalist core territory. Taking the hex may not be easy, but yet its by far the easiest part because...

2) You have to bring said resource to a port, using railways... Ho! Thats quite fun. So for the southern resource, this can be Haïphong in Vietnam, provided you control it. But before you'll have to capture Nanning... Hum, a mountain city, protected in part by rivers ? not fun! For the northern resource, you can try either the southern line, but this involves capturing Hengyang, a city deep within a valley. Taking the city involves capturing at least of mountain hex before... Not fun either! Or you can try through Changsa. Of course, that looks easier ; but in my two previous AAR where Changsa was a target, I failed...

3) One of the problem of this nice city (and the whole area in general) is that it is in the North moonsoon zone. This means that you have exactly 3 turns every year to make your attacks. Otherwise, you just wait your feet in the mud... Guess what, you lucky ? the three turns you have are the winter turns! yes, these turns in which you usually have but 2 impulses to play... Isn't that cool ?

4) But given these previous points, there is an interesting little rule: there cannot be any enemy ZOC (including partisans) on your railway line. Otherwise, the resource won't get through! Are you sure that there won't be any enemy unit adjacent to the railway line ? or a little partisan that will spring up in the mountains ? I wouldn't count on it!

So the result is clear: sad as it is, forget these resources! there are easier pickings elsewhere. All told, the Siberian ressources are quite more amenable...

Now, lets make a simple count: assuming you get that resource full time, it will earn you about 4.5+6+7.5+9+10.5+12 ~50 BP over the course of the war. That's great ; but really, given the previous conditions you're really unlikely to get more than 25% of that value ; don't forget the the Chinese has never anything better to do than move his units around. You'll soon have to tackle the USA and so on... you won't be able to fight as often as you'd want ; and unless you abandon the rest of China, you're even unlikely to gather enough forces to easily remove ntionalist units that will come and bother you. Just take a 3 infantry: how often will you get that 5/1 ratio (+10) where you'll lose an average of 0.78 unit in the mountains ?

Of course, if all goes well, at some point you can set your eyes on these resources, but they cannot be a goal by themselves : much too expensive.

[yvesp]

Lets see the other esources in China: there are the three resources initially controlled by Japan. One is along the coast, and should never be disputed. The second is in the plains, South of Peking. The last is in bordering the desert west of Peking.

1) Resource near the sea: how much one wishes it, once the Japanese enters the hinterland, it becomes vulnerable. Because the Japanes usually cannot spare troops to protect sore spots from these too common 3 rated partisans... So when the partisan appears, the resource is lost, and sometimes for more than a turn : the time required to bring back enough troops to destroy the partisan!

2) the resource in the plains is usually closer to the front line, so getting troops back to deal with partisans is not too difficult ; unless the front line is tricky to keep (which can be the case in front of the communists)

3) the resource in the mountains is a very sore spot : most often, it's easy to lose it for more than half of the game : a partisan has an easy time for placinf itself on the railway line to Peking. Once there, go and disloge it! Of course, the route could be through Taiyuan, but this involves keeping the communists at bay...

[yvesp]

What about the last resources ?

Well, the resource in Sian might be accessible, but this involves a difficult combat against the communists in the mountains. Not a pleasure. Getting it might be a serious goal, because it doesn't suffer the problems of the southern resources. Still, using it involves controlling the whole mountain ranges along the railroad, which is bubious unless faring very well.

The two other resource in cimmunist territory are just too far! Impossible to get them back consistently to the coastline. There will always be a unit or partisan to cut the road...

And the last resources, in the center of China just cannont be used. No railroad to bring them back...

[yvesp]

Why all this previous talk ?

Well, I have been wondering why the japanese player should focus on China. Victory points ? Come on! you already hold one, and the two others are so far that you can only dream of reaching them!

So what ? That's it: China provides three commodities:

1) Canton, the sole major port that you own that borders the two China seas, where it happens you have important economic interests.
2) Shangaï, which you must keep as a victory point
3) Resources, which China provides.

Point 1 an 2 are quite easy to ensure: even if either city was surrounded by enemy troops (unlikely!), the odds would be strongly in your favor (nationalist weakness combinend with poor troop quality and city attacks penalties)

So the whole thing lies in point 3! And now the previous analysis takes its interest: you must ensure that your resources flow every turn, and that it costs you as little as possible to keep them flowing. Entering the mountains of China does not ensure that goal!

1) you carry the fight into difficult terrain, where you are bound to lose troops for an very uncertain gain. Probably no gain! You may think that you weaken the Chinese, but do you really ? with an increased 0.25 in production multiple, any attack gives the Chinese almost one free infantry... So to come on top, you must destroy two!

2) that in turn places your troops in difficult situations, where they're often out of supply. You'll have to later lose impulses forced on you by the Chinese when you'd like to be free with your fleet... How much oil will you spend due to avoidable fights ? one oil equates half an infantry at the end of the game! More to the point, you'll very often feel unconfortable finding the right timing for your attack on the USA, because your troops are out of position, with thes marines pluging holes in the front line instead of being ready to embark!

Conversely, keeping to the territory you already control, you'll force the Chinese to come out in the open, where later they'll be easy pickings for your armored units! The Chinese will then have the unconfortable choice of leaving you alone in the plains, in which case your garrison ratio will ensure you never see any partisan, or come and meet you in plains, where you'll occasionnaly blow them up at little to no cost.

That's the basis of this setup: keep the front line in the plains. Let the Chinese do the fighting if they wish. Control the flow of the resources. Meanwhile, you'll be able to reinforce easily and build up your forces: anything you don't lose in China can go in your navy. As an added bonus, you won't piss the US off, since you won't be capturing any new city...

[yvesp]

On the first impulse, the Chinese began to close the gap and retake territory.
japan sent Yamamoto and 3 other infantries, including the marines.
The front line is still undermanned...

The second impulse begins with storms, which the japanese finds good, but which might prevent the German from capturing Varshaw on the other side of the world. Things went well there, and the poles lost tthree infantries to no loss, not enen a disorganized unit to the German.

The USA where only slightly annoyed went Germnay declared war, and frankly looked aside went the British replied in kind. That's not good...

[yvesp]

November turn.

The Chinese have advanced and recovered territory previously held by the Japanes.
They have not yet reached the Japanese lines.

It is unlikely that they will indeed ; advancing opens up the soft belly of China. Even though it is hard to capture, the South still requires garrisonning! And this reduces the amount of troops that could be in contact with the Japanese.

As a result, they would be cannon fodder in the open plains where the Japanese can easily redeploy!

This is perfect for the Japanese.

[AllenK]

Interesting analysis of the problems and strategic options of the Japanese in China.

In my first GW campaign I tried a screen the Nationalists but go for the Communists approach. Partly for the resources but also with the aim of capturing all their cities so they could not deploy.

Through 39, 40 and 41 it went pretty well, although I can't remember all the losses they weren't excessive. Around the Sept Oct 41 turn, the last city fell (using the Jap O-Chit) and the ChiComms were down to a solitary Cav division that had fled up into the desert.

I was in the process of breaking down a couple of the weaker corps into garrison divs when the weather packed up. The entire Northern Cnina force was out of supply and the appearance of Stillwell and need to prevent the Nationalist CAVs from infiltrating and cutting supply mean there was little that could be moved to assist. Particularly as Naval moves in the Pacific and NEI were needed.

Anyway, to cut a long story long, that lone ChiComm Cav division made an epic march through the desert, first threatening to take Taiyuan (blocked by rail moving in a Garr unit), then moving down and taking Yenan (nothing spare to stop it). Next reinforcement phase two units come back into Yenan and the Japanese army is in major trouble as it was cut off behind enemy lines. Each turn it got increasingly worse as the reinforcements moves out and new ones came in. It's then taken until May June 1944 to extricate what could be saved and that has not been without loss - Yamamoto being the worst.

As you can see from below, the paras are still in the mire and the ChiComms have recaptured all the ground lost. After much persistence and at least two rebuilds due to loss, the Nationalist Cav have also had their day in the sun up around Peking.

With all the losses and the O-Chit expenditure, strategically a disaster but it was a close run affair and but for the pesky Cav, who knows.

[yvesp]

ORIGINAL: AllenK

Interesting analysis of the problems and strategic options of the Japanese in China.

In my first GW campaign I tried a screen the Nationalists but go for the Communists approach. Partly for the resources but also with the aim of capturing all their cities so they could not deploy.

Through 39, 40 and 41 it went pretty well, although I can't remember all the losses they weren't excessive. Around the Sept Oct 41 turn, the last city fell (using the Jap O-Chit) and the ChiComms were down to a solitary Cav division that had fled up into the desert.

I was in the process of breaking down a couple of the weaker corps into garrison divs when the weather packed up. The entire Northern Cnina force was out of supply and the appearance of Stillwell and need to prevent the Nationalist CAVs from infiltrating and cutting supply mean there was little that could be moved to assist. Particularly as Naval moves in the Pacific and NEI were needed.

Anyway, to cut a long story long, that lone ChiComm Cav division made an epic march through the desert, first threatening to take Taiyuan (blocked by rail moving in a Garr unit), then moving down and taking Yenan (nothing spare to stop it). Next reinforcement phase two units come back into Yenan and the Japanese army is in major trouble as it was cut off behind enemy lines. Each turn it got increasingly worse as the reinforcements moves out and new ones came in. It's then taken until May June 1944 to extricate what could be saved and that has not been without loss - Yamamoto being the worst.

As you can see from below, the paras are still in the mire and the ChiComms have recaptured all the ground lost. After much persistence and at least two rebuilds due to loss, the Nationalist Cav have also had their day in the sun up around Peking.

With all the losses and the O-Chit expenditure, strategically a disaster but it was a close run affair and but for the pesky Cav, who knows.

That's an interesting story.

One of my two ideas was just that: deprieve the communists from any city to reinforce.
Then I realized that there always would be at least one unit that a smart communist would save, and that that unit could always move around and at some point liberate cities...

And there you come with your quite interesting story that just shows how right that was!

That's my analysis that fighting in China is futile: a competent Chinese will make you lose much more than you gain. The adventure cost you at the very least 20BP (one ochit, Yamamoto), plus a number of combat losses, plus a para which I hardly see escaping on your map. It's absolutely doubtfull that these costs were covered by the temporary gains from the captured resources and facilities. So economically that's a failure. But at least, you reached Lanchow, which I find exceedingly well : capturing Tianshui is no easy task!

So, that's the reason why I opted for the other statrategy: avoidance. That doesn't mean that I won't at some point try an offensive, but it will be opportunistic. Either the Chinese refutes combat, and I'm happy sitting on my resources, or he moves and attacks, on my ground, and I can hurt him back badly should he fail.

[yvesp]

As the last 1939 turn terminates, Germany is making good progress, so that it is worth a screenshot. It indeed made no fault and had no bad luck. Poland fell without any land unit being even flipped ; slight shadow: the loss of two Lnd3 over Varshaw, shot down by the Polish fighter! But the September turn was long, and the troops were halfway back when it ended. In the current turn, which lasted three impulses, the first impulse was used to move troops to the western borders ; the second impulse was used to capture Amsterdam and conquer the netherlands ; the third impulse was used to attack Brussels and capture Belgium... still with no loss and only a handful of flipped units.

Hence, January 1940 begins with the Germans at the French borders, with French absolutely unprepared at the event, who rushed troops as they could.

In China nothing much : the Chinese doesn't feel like approaching the Japanese troops. This could work in bad weather, but the 4-1 ratio or worse that the Japanese could muster is, well, not encouraging. The mountains are safer ; but they leave the whole plains to the Japanese army, easily preventing the advent of partisans. It looks like this standoff may last for some time, as the Japanese strategy is not to attack the Chinese, and the Chinese buildup will be quite slow with no attack to provide a boost... Worse, the Japanese send their planes in the north for strategic bombardment. It failed this time, but sometimes, this is bound to further restrict some of the Chinese production...

As far as production is concerned, Japan built:
* 1 Synth oil and 1 Territorial in September. The Synth Oil is welcome as soon: but there is no pressure, and building it is a top priority!
* 1 multi-purpose air transport, the H6K, with a range of 19, good naval capabilities and also the ability to strat bomb. Needless to say that it will certainly be in high demand! Note that even though it is an excellent unit, I never found the resources to build it in my two previous AAR ; 1 mountain inf ; 1 militia.


The Chinese built:
* 1 infantry in september, 1 mountain in november.

At this time, there actually is very little in the force pool to try and attack the Japanese...


One problem for the axis though: the high level of US entry. 13(Ge)/18(Ja), with already 8 tension in both pools... This could spell an early US gear-up.

[Centuur]

On the other hand: if Japan doesn't inflict losses on the Chinese, they will become stronger and stronger.

Japan should make sure the Chinese lose at least as many units as they are building. So you can't totally ignore them. You need to punch them now and again...

[Courtenay]

If you aren't attacking the Chinese, are the Russians on the menu?

[yvesp]

ORIGINAL: Centuur

On the other hand: if Japan doesn't inflict losses on the Chinese, they will become stronger and stronger.

Japan should make sure the Chinese lose at least as many units as they are building. So you can't totally ignore them. You need to punch them now and again...

That's what most people assume.

Actually I now strongly believe that the Chinese cannot do strong harm to the Japanese provided they keep a good defensive line. The nationalist units are almost non existent. And the Chinese force pool is not that impressive anyway ; there is only so much damage it can do. So Yes, time and again, you have to fight the communists ; I believe that this is much cheaper waiting for them to come than trying to go at them. This AAR will tell me whether I'm wrong! All what I can say is that at this point, the Chinese wouldn't try an attack : because, contrary to what you may think, if the Chinese err, the Japanese will advance to inflict severe harm if possible. Something you can hardly ignore if you're fighting in the plains.

[yvesp]

ORIGINAL: Courtenay

If you aren't attacking the Chinese, are the Russians on the menu?

That's an interesting possibility, but it requires some units build up, not to be attacked on the wrong timing by the Chinese, and have enough punch to hurt the Russians. But definitely, it is in my plans... Yet, that also depends on the German plans, and these will be set depending on the time France falls.

[WarHunter]

The following suggestions are in support of your overall strategy.

Don't attack unless you have to, or a great opprotunity presents itself.
Why?
It deprives China of a .25 production bonus.

Build aircraft to do a camapaign of strategic bombing. Could be the most cost effective way to hamstring the production capability.

Ground strike Chinese HQ's whenever the opprotunity exists.

Until the option for Japan/USSR is coded. Any Japanese/USSR land war will have to be a contrived adventure.
If done before Germany and the USSR are at war. It adds all the militia units to the USSR force pool.
No forced peace means prepetual war. Which also means Land impluses for the USSR, forever.

Close the Burma Road as soon as its fesible, by use of USE action.
Expect to send a sizable force to French-Indo China.
The Nationalist forces will have enough leftover to give some grief.

After my own expirence in China from both sides. Not taking China out may not be a bad idea overall.

Good Luck.

[yvesp]

ORIGINAL: WarHunter

The following suggestions are in support of your overall strategy.

Don't attack unless you have to, or a great opprotunity presents itself.
Why?
It deprives China of a .25 production bonus.

Yes ; that's akin to destroying one unit per turn, at no loss to me.

Build aircraft to do a camapaign of strategic bombing. Could be the most cost effective way to hamstring the production capability.

Right. I can do this because I have spare BP to put into multipurpose air power, BP I did not find when waging land campaigns. This should average a loss of 1.5 per turn.

Ground strike Chinese HQ's whenever the opprotunity exists.

At this time, this is not important. Later, when the Chinese has enough units to launch an attack, yes: a HQ can boost the Chinese attack. Still, only ART should be used for that purpose: oil is too precious.

Until the option for Japan/USSR is coded. Any Japanese/USSR land war will have to be a contrived adventure.
If done before Germany and the USSR are at war. It adds all the militia units to the USSR force pool.
No forced peace means prepetual war. Which also means Land impluses for the USSR, forever.

Yes, the fact that this is not implemented is annoying. It is not a problem if the USSR and Germany are already at war, but otherwise it indeed boosts the USSR. I could force the USSR to play combined though. I can also play a mock peace between Japan and USSR. It's not like I were playing against a real opponent.

The real bonus however is that the Japanese situation in China should not push the USSR into action: there always is a strong risk that if too many land units are embroiled into the Chinese hinterland, the USSR could declare war and the Japanese not have any serious land power to stop him. See my first AAR... This strategy removes a startegic liability: everybody knows that neither Russia nor Japan are willing to engage in a long costly war. Having spare land units is the way to be on the deciding side!

Close the Burma Road as soon as its feasible, by use of USE action.

Of course ; because it won't be closed militarily, and that's another way to limit Chinese production.

Expect to send a sizable force to French-Indo China.
The Nationalist forces will have enough leftover to give some grief.

Although they are not very dangerous their nupmbers can be annoying. But my experience shows that their nuisance is not their military power, but their ability to infiltrate and cut supplies. This should not happen in my strategy. Furthermore, being close to the coastlines ensures a better supply flow.

After my own expirence in China from both sides. Not taking China out may not be a bad idea overall.

Good Luck.

I'm glad you see that my way may not be the worst! I also had bad experiences with China, which is rather more difficult to fight now than it was on the boardgame: the change of scale indeed changes a lot of things. That's good, because historically, the Japanese had many troubles there ; the conquest of China was indeed a far away dream...

In my previous AAR, the Japanese did not do bad in China, and lost rather few units while still advancing reasonably well ; the problem is that apart from the satisfaction "hey, I'm winning", this did not seem to help in any way the Japanese situation. The fact is also that I lost more BP to partisan action than to combat: as the Japanese advance, they cannot garrison, or keep strong enough force to retaliate rapidly. The worst is losing the northern resource, which is exceedingly easy, and once lost (either because it was unprotected or because the railway is cutoff), you have a hell of a time recovering it: it entails sending a a HQ and enough force to kill an entrenched 3 unit... In the end, it just becomes a bleeding loss of one resource per turn. I expect to avoid that problem in that game!

The real fact is that I was always wondering, when playing the Japanese, why I was trying to advance into China. It happens that it was more a habit than well thought strategy: I would attack because I could somewhere gain that 5-1 attack ratio (not often) and that would hurt the Chinese. Oh... but this is far from being a strategy! The other reason was the dream of getting more resources : tactically, that was not unsound. Except that all shows that the loss/gain ratio is not in the favor of the Japanese.

BTW, currently, the % chance of getting partisans in China is 0% (garrison ~30.)
This means that as long as the Chinese don't venture closer to the Japanese lines, one of the Japanese goal is fulfilled.

[yvesp]

Begin of Rant

I'm tired of seing the game reassign the lent French resource to its convenience.
I'm lending one resource from France to China.
The game insists that it comes from France itself, using a lot of precious convoys, while It should use the Hanoï resource.
I've lost more than one hour trying to impose the Hanoï resource, to no avail.
The game grudgingly accept to do this, but only when I put all other resources to the idle state!

The game MUST provide a way to decide on which resource is to be sent (or lost if it cannot reach its destination.)

The message in the panel doesn't help : when i click the "trade" button for a resource, I get a very useful message telling me to use the "Default Layout and Default Country" panel. Hu ? Where is that ? And if that's so, why is there a trade button at all in the production planning panel ?

This HAS to be corrected soon as it is annoying as hell!

End of Rant.

[yvesp]

Even though this is a Japanese AAR, important things that happen in other theater are of some interest.

The january turn lasts and the weather has turned good... Von Rundsted has launched an offensive against a stack of two French infantry (defense 10), and made an impressive breakthrough (23+) despite a very bad roll (5.)

This dooms the French within a very short time.

[yvesp]

The situation in China is one of truce ; the armies are watching each other.

Japan builds:
* 2 inf
* 1 Zuikaku(superstructures)
* 1 Lnd3 (dubious about that one ; supposedly for strat bombing, but I also may try carpet bombing... Who knows ?)
* 1 Pilot

The Chinese build one mot and one inf.