Tungkwan

[Courtenay]

I have been looking at a Japanese assault against the Communists down the Talyuan-Tungkwan rail line, initially ignoring Chengchow. This looks very hard for the Chinese to stop. Indeed, if the Communist attempt to hold Tungkwan, it looks like they are setting themselves up for disaster, baring bad luck for the Japanese. The only defense that seems to offer a prayer of succeeding is something like peskpesk's in the rematch game they just started, and even there I think more help from the Nationalists is needed. Of course, this weakens the Nationalists in the south, but if you look at the AAR's on this forum, a south first strategy has usually led to stalemate or worse, while a north first strategy has frequently led to victory.

The Japanese attack is even better if they throw a couple of out of supply divisions through the Ordos desert, threatening the Communist cities in the rear as I have seen in couple of recent games.

So, how do people go about defending against such a plan, while leaving not leaving the south open to being overwhelmed? In other words, how much can the Nationalists divert to the north, and where should they be deployed? I think that in addition to standard two corps in Chengchow, the Yellow river west of Chenchow has to be defended somehow. The Japanese have to be slowed before they reach Tungkwan, and the Chinese have to hope for bad weather to stop the Japanese in '39 and early '40.

[peskpesk]

Mayhemizer plays both Com Ch and Nat Ch. The usual counter to the outflanking in the desert is to place a Nat Ch in the north ”above” the normal Com Ch setup, If no more the normal Two Nationalis defending Chengchow its av valid JP strategy. Chengchow is often valid when Com Ch line has gaps in the line.

http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=4615461&mpage=1&key=

[Centuur]

It depends on Uncle Joe presence on the Siberian-Manchurain border. If Japan goes all-out in China, they will succeed in conquering the country. But if Uncle Joe puts pressure on the Japanese by having units there which might or might not go to war in Manchuria if Japan doesn't maintain a healthy garrison there, can help the Chinese a lot.

If Japan really continues to hammer on the Chinese, there is only one thing the Allies can do. And that's to have Stalin declare war on Japan (which isn't too bad IMHO, even with the two chits removed from the US entry pools). A side effect of this is that Uncle Joe starts building MIL units, which come in handy to increase the garrison against Germany...

[peskpesk]

Here is a example of a “weak” Ch setup, use the gaps in the line along the North/south Tungkwam railway line and/or outflanking in the desert will give JP advantages even with the city itself defended.

[Courtenay]

I think you left out your example in your last post, unless you are referring to some earlier post.

[peskpesk]

The missing image is now included

[Courtenay]

Thank you.

[Orm]

ORIGINAL: peskpesk

Here is a example of a “weak” Ch setup, use the gaps in the line along the North/south Tungkwam railway line and/or outflanking in the desert will give JP advantages even with the city itself defended.

If I were playing Japan against this setup I would attack Tungkwan on impulse 1. And, I think, would ground strike the Mao hex. The odds on Tungkwan should be fairly high. Getting +13, or more, against Tungkwan should be relatively easy to get. And if the Japanese stay organized the Communists are in serious trouble. And if the ground strike disorganize Mao, or perhaps the other unit, then Sian will fall quickly.

[brian brian]

If the Japanese drive down from Taiyuan while simply putting a ZoC block on a Nationalist held Chengchow, they will likely be fairly weak elsewhere. Even with Yamamoto’s group in Japan about to land somewhere. That requires a Combined impulse on the first turn - a weak point in Japan’s potential on the first turn.

This could well give the Nationalist CAV a chance to threaten any number of Japanese held cities somewhere. The Chinese should never actually attack anything in 39/40, but any city they can sneak back in to likely forces a US entry chit roll later. Late in a turn, a Nationalist unit can slip out of Chengchow if they have a reinforcement on the spiral for the next turn. Then Japanese problems can start to multiply.

The Communists are indeed vulnerable to ‘raids’ around their northern flank; same is true on the large scale map. If Japan can get a ZoC on to the right spot in the Lanchow area and merely block a resource moving, that is a good win for them. This is one of many micro-campaigns where using the Isolated Re-Org optional is wise. Trying to operate military forces in the Gobi Desert would require a significant investment in logistics. Something the Bushido-inspired Japanese were particularly poor at implementing.