Example of play - Taking Hangchow GD1938

[ernieschwitz]

I thought I would try and show how I would do part of an opening move, when playing Japan, in GD 1938.

The object of the exercise: Take Hangchow.

Now undoubtedly there are many ways to do this, some would require more than 1 turn but be more effecient, but I wanted to show that it could be done in 1 turn, that is without the Chinese player having done anything at all. The only two other countries that have their turn before Japan is Germany and Italy, and they have absolutely no influence on what is going to happen in the following.

Here is the starting positions of everything.
Nothing out of the ordinary has happened, except Shunruko Hata has gotten the Attack II card. (30% chance)

[ernieschwitz]

I select the Ki-27s (x5) and the A5M4s (x3) and preform a fighter sweep over Hangchow.
Purpose, to clear the air of any pesky fighters the Chinese may send up to prevent my recons from doing their job.

I shoot down 2 fighter Is, not bad, but lose 1 Ki-27, which hurts.

On the plus side, i get 1 militia man and 1 MG unit killed of his.
Also his fighters (those that survived) are well supressed.

[ernieschwitz]

I fly a recon over the Hex just Northwest of Hangchow, with the recon IIIs located in Taipei.'
I select them again, and fly a recon over the hex just south of the one i just chose before.
Now i see what i am up against.

[ernieschwitz]

Move artillery in position to shoot on Hangchow.
Accidently moved an infantry man at the same time, from Hex located at the bridge, but no matter, i would have moved him anyway.
Moved artillery from Hex with Bridge, and from Shanghai (2 units).
Also moved the infantry unit (largest one) from Shanghai. (did it after the screenshot)

[ernieschwitz]

Bombard with artillery.
Hit the fighters, giving them less readiness, nice for the next step, bombing.
Eliminated two militia, and caused others to get readiness hits, not good, not bad, just average.

[ernieschwitz]

Bomb Hangchow.
Select Bomber IIs, Fighter Is, and divebombers in Shanghai.
Select Fighter Is in Taipei.

Total: 9 Figther Is, 4 divebombers, 2 Bomber IIs.

Results, 2 more militia killed.

At this point i don´t care more about how many fighters are shot down.
The main idea was to get them off the backs of my bombers, which worked.

[ernieschwitz]

Optional, of course, but why not (appart from the fact that it causes quite a bit of structural damage).
Move the First Fleet from Tokyo to just outside Hangchow.

[ernieschwitz]

Commence Shore bombardment.
results, much as expected, nothing dies, 175 points of structural damage.

[ernieschwitz]

Fuel is now 4085, which is still adequate for more operations.
Optional, select the HQ, for 4th Army, select his card (attack II), and play it, on the armored formation.

[ernieschwitz]

Attack Hangchow with all you have got except one of the units North of Hangchow, that has not moved.
That unit will be well entrenched and serve as defence against a possible chinese counter attack.

You will have an attack stack of 367/300... but thats not too bad.

[ernieschwitz]

Attack, with your units. And there you have it, Hangchow has fallen.
It will be a bloody battle though, but the Chinese will be sent realing.

[ernieschwitz]

In this case counting up the casualties can be done by switching view, fastest.



Attackers:
46 dead rifle Is, 10 dead SMG Is, 4 HMGs dead as well...

Defenders:
44 conscripts dead, 2 fighter Is dead, 2 GP MGs dead and 4 Mortar IIs dead.

Seems like a pyrhic victory, except, that the Chinese just lost a city, and they probably won´t take it back.

[ernieschwitz]

Finally, move in and occupy the city with the units you have along the coastline, south of Shanghai.

[ironduke1955]

A question and a point. Did you rerun the attack to check fail rate ? If the Japanese exchange 1 Rifleman for 1 Conscript this will be a fairly bloody campaign from a Japanese perspective.

[jday305]

Nice job with this post as it would be very informative for those who are new to this game in how to properly attack an intrenched enemy in a city.

[ernieschwitz]

ORIGINAL: ironduke1955
A question and a point. Did you rerun the attack to check fail rate ? If the Japanese exchange 1 Rifleman for 1 Conscript this will be a fairly bloody campaign from a Japanese perspective.

I´ve done this attack at least 5 times at various times. I think that I was lucky to get the card, but the results of the battle itself where unlucky.

And yes it is a fairly bloody attack, but Japanese production outstrips Chinese production. I would think that as long as you get 1 to 1 tradeoffs, you are ok. This would not work however if the Chinese had a force that could actually do some damage, in a counterattack, but the Chinese army is really only at this point designed to defend.

[Twotribes]

Actually with enough conscripts and some support they can attack the weakened Japanese forces. I lost the other vulnerable city I took near Peking. Granted it is a losing proposition for China in the long run but they can hurt the Japanese if they are willing to take losses.

[ernieschwitz]

Granted: The Chinese can bite back, and you don´t need to have too many of these near victories to be able to lose the war with China. But then again, you can´t allow the Chinese to get the initiative. I am a firm believer that Hangchow needs to fall no later than turn 2...