As part of the multi-pronged drive to re-open the northern end of the Burma Road, the Chinese New 1st Army had pushed south to the river port of Bhamo, the terminus of navigation on the Irrawaddy. The Japanese had spent some six months turning it into a fortress. Tasked to capture the city were the veteran jungle-fighters of the Chinese 38th Division, now confronted by an entirely new type of combat. The initial attacks of its 113th Infantry Regiment got nowhere. However, north of Bhamo, the 114th, with only half the support but a more aggressive and imaginative commander, pushed into the Japanese defenses and held firm. The air and artillery assets were shifted to him, and he proceeded to the next phase of his break-in.
Attacker: Chinese (114th Infantry Regiment, 38th Infantry Division)
Defender: Japanese (16th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division)
12 turns
Players: 2 OBA: Both Night: No
Unit Counts:
Squads: A:22.5 D:13.0
AFVs: A:0
AFVs: D:0
Guns: A:0
M2 60mm Mortar x 2
D:2
Type 98 High-Angle Machine Cannon Type 89 Heavy Grenade-Launcher x 2 Type 92 70mm INF Gun
Misc Rules:
PTO, LJ (Exc: roads exist, no huts), Ov4 w A: Air w D: FB
I split my force about evenly, half heading through the eastern jungle/half heading straight up the gut. My plan was to try for the early victory, but if I found a hole in the defense I'd consider going for the other side. My trek through the jungle uncovered many panjis. They didn't really hurt me too much, as I was very cautiously moving due to all the potential HIP traps the Japanese could pull, but they did set me back a turn. I also found an early minefield in the stone building up front. An early Japanese berserker got mowed down by my kill stack. By Turn 3 I was ready to give him some OBA love on the VC building, and I striped everyone there. Very surprisingly he had no leaders here. My eastern push was met with a lot of pinning, so I was not able to get into CC. So I unleashed the other OBA on that side and whittled him down there. Turn 4 I just kept dropping the hammer. By the end of the Turn I had scored a couple CHs, and he was down to a broken HS in the VC building. I was kept out at the moment though due to having to wait for my FFE to run it's course. His defense was getting thin, but I was still very leery of all the unrevealed traps out there (I had yet to see a PB). No surprise when he repopulated the VC building via a tunnel, but when my OBA scored another CH and rubbled the building he conceded.
2020-10-20
(A) Paul Works
vs
Dan Best
Japanese win
Dan set up a great defense. His well-placed pillbox with his 10-1, a crew, and the .50cal caused me no end of pain! My aircraft did destroy his INF Gun, but did very little else. My radio-directed OBA got one fire mission that did little. My aerial observer-directed OBA did get two fire missions that caused some damage, but not much, and - bonus (!) - I did get attacked by a mistaken attack/OBA fire mission for that module (sigh). My 9-2, two HMGs, and a MMG got into position to attack Dan's pesky pillbox, but did not get a result with two 14+3 shots. Dan fired back at 8+1 and broke my entire stack (including ELRing two of the squads, casualty-reducing one of them; ouch). My 9-2 would not rally for two complete turns (!!) and then roll a "12" to wound himself; a complete disaster. I did finally capture the early-VC building, but too late. I also was able to get into CC with the 10-1 and crew in the pillbox and finally put an end to them. After that ordeal, three of my leaders were wounded (two by Dan's sniper) and I just did not have enough oompf left (to include leader MF bonuses) to get over the canal and capture the required buildings. If I only had one more turn... ;-) Good job by Dan. Fun scenario. I'd play it again.
The Chinese used massive OBA smoke to hinder their advance. They managed to cross the wire and minefields on the front line and kill the few Japanese advance troops but could not get the fast victory because it was a fortified building and they could not CC it and they could also not fire on it... with their vision blocked by their own OBA smoke! The Chinese decided not to go for the long win and conceded the game.
2017-12-26
(D) Jeff B
vs
Andreas Reimer
Japanese win
11.25 hrs
The Chinese had a LOT go wrong for them in this game. 2/3 of the planes dropped bombs on their own men, the onboard radio busted for good early, and there were many times the Japanese rolled hot while the Chinese rolled cold. Despite all of that I was still sweating an early Chinese victory. The main reason being that, with the planes, repositioning was difficult. So what was there on defense was pretty much stuck where it was. If it wasn't for the tunnels I wouldn't have stood a chance. I also made the mistake of setting my phone on the south side of the stream thinking I could move a leader back during the endgame. But the Japanese are fairly short on leaders here and the "extras" got blasted to bits early. The 10-1 did survive to help hold the fort, and the 9-1 and gang held out in the east far longer than I ever could've hoped. The Chinese leaders were just decimated throughout and, when they lost two more on Turn 8, they threw in the towel as they only had one left. I would definitely want to be the Chinese in this if I was playing again. Even though I think my southern defense would've been tough to crack, I would not want to try and hold the fort against ordinary dice rolls. Fun scenario though.
2017-03-24
(A) Andy Beaton
vs
Will Willow
Chinese win
Panjis and pillboxes slowed down the Chinese too much for the quick VC, but 12 turns gave the Chinese lots of time for a war of attrition and then scooping up the buildings once all the Japanese were dead.
