What to do at Wuchow? (No Monterey's please)

[USSAmerica]

It's the beginning of January, 1942, in my stock game against Montereytrench. He's moved 19 LCU's from Canton into Wuchow and started to bombard me. Here's what I'm facing:



Yes, I hit him with a shock attack after a limited bombardment attack showed he had only 1 Div, 1 Naval Guard unit, and 1 Tank Rgt, with lots of engineers and artillery. He had bombarded me that same turn, so his defensive value was diminished, but here is the result:



Most of the damage was sustained by his engineer and artillery units.

Wuchow has level 4 forts, with 46% progress to level 5, but my supply situation is not great. 6615 supply with 5600 required.


I'm torn about what I should do here going forward, if anything. 1. I can sit still and take it like a man, as his engineers and artillery go to work on me. 2. I can bombard him, but I think trading shells will give him a serious advantage. 3. I can attack, either deliberate or shock.

I like the idea of attacking, since it seems that I can put a good hurt on his expensive artillery and engineers, but I don't think I have the supply for many more attacks on hand. Not much supply seems to be flowing forward to Wuchow from the rear areas. I think the only way to really get a bunch of supply here would be to march the China Command HQ here from Chungking.

There is also a possibility that I can get a few units behind these invading Japanese units, marching down the rail from Kweilin, but they wouldn't last long there.

If I can force these guys to retreat, I think I could chase them all the way back to Canton, and maybe even into Hong Kong. (Probably a pipe dream.[8|])

Oh, great and wise residents of the War Room, what suggestions might you have for me? [:D]

[KPAX]

Very Big Picture, as Allies, China does not really matter, make him bleed is the point.
 
China, in stock is super hard to maintain, if he consolidates if he wishes.  However, if you work on the bases you REALLY want to hold, build forts, AV and make it cost him.

[Cpt Sherwood]

My advice, only bombard him. Your experience will rise. Build forts. From what I see, he can't take Wuchow with what he has there. Just sit tight and let your LCUs experience grow. Can you use a squadron of AVG to escort some bombers? That will give the bomber crews some experience also. You should also make sure you have a Corp HQ there and change your ID and Corp commanders.

[USSAmerica]

Sounds like Option 1, "Take it like a man" is the concensus advice. 
 
I'm ok with that, but I'm thinking of taking Chain Kai Shek on tour with his China Command HQ to try to bring some supplies forward from the rear areas.  Maybe I'll make Wuchow the first stop on the tour. 

[USSAmerica]

Hmmm...only two suggestions.  I guess China land combat is not very popular.  [:D]

[ctangus]

I wouldn't worry about it too much. Don't bother bombarding him. If he bombards you you'll take a few casualties but gain experience. It shouldn't diminish and might even increase your fighting ability.

Couple suggestions:

You'd be better off moving the Chinese HQ to somewhere like Kweilin. It will gather extra supplies there and then distribute them to nearby bases. You'd need to make sure to clear the railroad hexes between Kweilin and Wuchow though. Which brings me to my next suggestion:

Your units would last long behind him if you get them into Canton. If he meets you on open terrain you may be in trouble but he probably can't do that while maintaining garrison requirements. Send a corps, maybe two to be safe. To have 19 LCUs in Wuchow this early he's light on the ground in Canton. Since it's an urban hex he won't have the strength to boot you out of there - you'll get the 4X defensive bonus, too. And then he's in big doo-doo with 65,000 troops surrounded. He'll have to respond otherwise you could reinforce Wuchow and potentially eliminate those troops over several months. At least you'd be forcing him to react to you. And stopping his resource/supply production at Canton for a while.

[moses]

1.) You sit and take it for a while. Shock attack is tough in those woods. And although he has only one division he has a lot of support troops and is probably bombing you daily from the air. You're losses to artillery may seem large but keep an eye on your disablements and you will see that only the HQ's are getting hurt. Go ahead and bombard. It will train your troops.

2.) What troops do you have sitting in Nanning? They shouldn't be there. Get all that stuff into the fight preferably by cutting off the Japanese between Wuchow and Canton.

3.) Swing a Corps or two south from Changsa to cut him off.

The key is that at this stage Japan does not have many divisions in that southern area. You can surround those guys and they will have real problems.

But don't uncover Changsa. That's key. You don't want to let that fall.


This is not really helpful but for future reference; I always send 4 or 5 Corps to the wooded hex between Canton and Wuchow early on while Japan is dealing with Hong Kong. This way he gennerally cannot get to Wuchow without a lot of reinforcements.

[moses]

BTW if you have 3 or more Corps at Nanning you might try that shock attack again a couple more times once those troops arrive. Check your HQ and see about getting the best leader there. Make sure all units are prepping for Wuchow.

You're pretty close and if you get a couple good rolls of the dice you might rout him.

[ctangus]

ORIGINAL: moses

2.) What troops do you have sitting in Nanning? They shouldn't be there. Get all that stuff into the fight preferably by cutting off the Japanese between Wuchow and Canton.

You don't think they'd do better staying at Nanning keeping the Japs there pinned in place?

[moses]

I don't know what Japan has there in this particular game, but I would guess not much. At start I think they have a single small unit which barly covers the garrison requirment. So unless Japan has for some reason sent several divisions to that location I don't see that you're pinning many Japanese.

In any event Nanning is of no value at least at this stage of the game and China does not have the luxury of defending places like that. There are a bunch of Chinese Corps sitting on the rail around Nanning in the stock start. It is very useful to get these to the front as quickly as possible.

[USSAmerica]

More good suggestions guys.  [8D]
 
The troops in Nanning are 2 corps and 2 HQs.  They started at the China/Vietnam border.  There are still 2 more corps and another HQ manning the border for now.  There is only 1 detected Japanese LCU in Nanning, but my guys are short on supply, so I don't think I could win a fight.  Will the game allow me to march my troops out of Nanning in the direction of Canton, effectively marching through an enemy controlled base?  If so, I'll get them moving pronto to help surround and cut off the invaders of Wuchow.  Any issues with moving the troops that remain at the border?  Is it ok to leave this border undefended?  What does Japan start with in Hanoi for stock Scen 15? 
 
I'm taking the advice to send 2 corps and 1 HQ from Kweilin to the rail junction 1 hex SE of Wuchow.  If they get there ok, I'll continue into Canton to see what kind of trouble I can cause. [8D] 
 
Chaing Kai Shek and his Travelling Supply Show is starting their tour of South China.  The destination will be Kweilin, by way of Kunming and Kweiyang. 
 
I'll have my guys in Wuchow sit tight for now.  The supply bumped up to 9458 last turn with 4809 required.  At least it's nice to see some supply moving to where it's needed in China.  [:)]  Fort building is now 51% toward level 5.  5% in 2 days. 
 
 

[qgaliana]

I find my supply will get drawn to where I am attacking in China. It helps to keep it to one offensive at a time, since there isn't much to go around, but after a couple days bombardments or attacks I usually start seeing the base I am interested in sitting at 20k.