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Porkman

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Nov 4, 2006
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I've always been popping up on these forums talking about how to play Nat. China and doing it in a different way then most people. So for further edification I decided to write an AAR.

Format: Mostly gameplay with some story thrown in where I feel like it. The intended goal of this AAR is to show how a player can successfully unite China and beat the Japanese quickly without resorting to a war of attrition. This includes crushing the Communists early and annexing Guangxi without triggering the peace event. After that, I hope to be the only Nationalist China AAR to ever make it past 43.

Also, for most of this AAR I end up using simplified Chinese because I didn't figure out how to make windows type in Traditional with a Hanyu Pinyin input until recently. For names, I'm using the pinyin forms with the exception of Chiang Kai Shek, because it's the romanization system closest to the real pronunciation. (Chiang Kai Shek however is really pronounced Jiang Jieshi.) the only difference is that "x" makes a "sh" sound, "q" makes a "ch" sound. and "zh" makes a "j" sound. The reason they have both is that it affects the pronunciation of vowels afterwards but the initial consonant is pretty close.

Mods: The Armageddon Consolidated Chinese Improvement pack + CDCP + SKIF + Graphic Improvement Project. + two modded events: the Xi'an event has been pushed back until may (The historical one was in December) and an old guard retires event.


Settings: Normal/Aggressive

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Prologue

24年 12月 14日

After reading the message, Foreign Minister Zhang Zun nervously fidgeted fearing the inevitable reaction to its contents. The latest message from Russia was not good.

The Generalissimo paced up and down the office, working himself into a rage. His Foreign Minister watched as his strides grew longer and various obscenities started pouring from his mouth.

That was why it was almost startling when Kai Shek stopped suddenly.

"Tell Stalin that if he won't keep up his end of the deal I see no reason why the Guomindang should keep up ours. Fetch the senior staff, 1936 is going to be a whole new year."

25年 1月 1日

193611productionbefore.png


China, and by extension the Guomindang, were in poor shape. Outwardly strong, with almost 300,000 soldiers under its direct control, the Guomindang was rife with corruption. Their army while better than the other warlords were themselves underpaid, underfed and ill equipped. That was why Chiang Kai Shek shocked everyone when he canceled the creation of a new army built along German lines.

When asked to explain, his famous quote was, "Regionalism, warlordism, and banditry are what results from putting your faith in armies alone. Qin Shi Huang used his armies to do great things, but his dynasty crumbled to nothing because, although he knew it was the subject's obligation to obey, he neglected his own obligation of moral leadership. The Guomindang cannot defeat the warlords by becoming one itself."

Modern historians question how much of this was just rhetoric. Almost 15,000 soldiers ended up being added to existing units. Furthermore, the Guomindang commissariat, disbanded 1929 after fears of communist infiltration, was re activated. Both the Central Army Officer Academy and the Staff College were expanded. The former trained new junior officers and the latter served as a refresher for senior officers still mired in a WW1 mindset.....

Excerpt from The Nationalist Era of the Guomindang, Lloyd Eastman

193611productionafter.png


In 1924, Chiang Kai Shek had been impressed by the Red Army when he had seen it on maneuvers in Moscow. The low tech and poor training of his armies had parallels with the Russians. So despite being deeply critical of its political leadership, he asked FalkenHausen to develop doctrines for the Revolutionary Army using the Red army as a template. As part of his military reorganization, it was decreed that all divisions be modernized to a unified standard. The Revolutionary army was suffering because although some units were modern enough, the quality of rest varied. Some were still using rifles manufactured under the Qing dynasty. Finally, he had the countries leading industrialists work on a new method for supplying the armies. The current regionalism had in part been caused by the Qing's inability to centrally supply and therefore control their armies.

193611technology.png


Responding to Japanese saber rattling, the Chinese decided to roar a little themselves. Needing an ally and financier, German companies were given generous mining and manufacturing concessions in China in hopes that a hold on the pocketbooks would translate into political leverage.

193611slider.png

Germans.png

(this is one of many trades that I did, even though it's in march I started them in January)

The justification for all this reorganization had been a renewed offensive against the communists. Every single soldier in the Guomindang would be employed. "The Second Long March" as it would come to be known had begun.

193611massivemovement.png


The muslim warlords of Ningxia, Gansu and Qinghai were asked to join in the war. Ma Bufang, Ma Hongkui, and Ma Hongbin agreed as the western part of the communist base area had been carved out of Hui (Ethnic Chinese Muslims) territory. The anti religious nature of Communism was also seen as more of a threat than the Guomindang's indifference.

193611Xibeisanmamilcontrol.png


Surprisingly, the Communists struck first. Seeking to gain control of the important city of Yinchuan, the communists attacked south and hit Guyuan. The local forces were more armed bandits than proper soldiers and the communists were out for blood, as it had been the Hui armies that had caused them the most grief during the first Long March.

193611guyuanunderattack.png


The troops had no choice but retreat.

193611guyuanretreat.png


In the confusion started by the massive mobilization, a few forced retirements could be overlooked.

193611oldguard.png


25年 1月 10日

Communist forces under Zhou Enlai attacked south towards Tianshui. Surprisingly outnumbered, Ma Hongkui retreated after little fighting.

1936110Tianshui.png


25年 1月 1日

Relief forces from Yinchuan had arrived to save Guyuan. They immediately found themselves in the middle of a massive assault.

1936121gyuanattackedagain.png


A mixture of Nationalist and Hui forces in Lanzhou immediately attacked across the river to put pressure on the communist advance.

1936121flankattack.png


It quickly became clear, however, that they were outnumbered and the communists were much more well organized. The troops in Lanzhou were forced to cancel their assault and expand their fortifications to accommodate the armies withdrawing from Guyuan.

1936121gyuanattackedagain.png


25年 1月 24日

The communists had decided to follow up their advance by striking at Lanzhou. For a while, artillery fire could be heard in the old capital, but, just as the communists were approaching the city, help arrived in form of the two divisions that had been defeated at Tianshui. The Red Army was suddenly threatened with encirclement and pulled back across the river.

1936121victoryatlanzhou.png



25年 1月 28日

Unfortunately, a second attack on Lanzhou is successful. The armies split into two columns one heading south to Tianshui, the other heading northwest to Jinchang. Communist forces arrived piecemeal in Tianshui from Pingliang and Xiangyang to try to encircle the fleeing forces. When they arrived they were inevitably attacked by Chiang Kai Shek and, once outside of their base area, they were always forced to retreat.

(I have no pictures of this. details at end of post)

25年 2月 30日

By the end of February, most of the armies had arrived and were just waiting for the opportunity to attack. Guomindang forces were organized into three armies. In the East, General Von Falkenhausen would be in command of some twenty divisions, though not all were proper infantry. In the center, Chiang Kai Shek had 14 divisions. Finally, Tianshui was held by an eclectic mixture of Guomindang and Ma troops. As the divisions had arrived at their appropriate commands, the leadership had been changed from marginally skilled, but unimaginative generals to more promising officers from the lower ranks. Over the past two months, artillery shells, grain, ammunition, fuel, and other military supplies had been stockpiled in anticipation of the this offensive. The initial plan was simple. Chiang Kai Skek and Falkenhausen would advance on Xianyang with their experienced armies while the forces in the west would provide spoiling attacks to tie troops down away from the main offensive. Meanwhile, Guomindang's sole wing of bombers would fly from their airbase in Chengdu and try to cause as much chaos as possible. The amount of damage that the outdated planes could do was minimal, but the shock effect of planes on the uneducated, preindustrial peasants of the Red Army would make up for that. Even so, the Communists were fortified behind a river in mountainous terrain and even outnumbered 8 to 1 this wasn't going to be easy. Tomorrow's attack would test the Guomindang like nothing before.


1936-2-30-the-setup-with-ar.png


Stay tuned. 再见!

(A quick note about February. I initially played until march taking all my screens, but I realized that I'd broken my own rules by fortifying everyone to Lanzhou. This made Lanzhou too strong and the communists were unable to take it. I got halfway through February before I realized that there was no way I was going to be able to crack Xianyang with all the communist forces still in the east. So I restarted, did the exact same setup with production, tech, movement etc. and this time Lanzhou fell and troops moved to Tianshui. Unfortunately, I didn't do screen grabs of the new game until right before I attack the commies.)
 
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Goooo China!
 
Awesome! I love China!
 
Great start!

I recommend playing with teach team take over, for China is a must, at least until you annex the Commies (or Japan).

Good luck!

Oh and you should try to lower your images quality or size, for the sake of those without broadband.
 
Uhm, it might help to reduce the size of the images before uploading them. 3 MB per image is too much, don't you think?
 
nice aar. though how are you going to stop that annoying event that makes a forced peace in about may? (i cant remember the name)

how are the pictures different to any other aar's? i thought most people had broadband by now anyway.
 
I like the large images.
 
Yay

Davisx3m Indeed

Maj. von Mauser I'm honestly surprised there aren't more AAR's about it.

elbasto It's too late now, I'm at the end of 1937. Fortunately, CCIP has an event for both the communists and nationalists where, after unification, the tech teams are upgraded from 2's and 3's to 3's and 4's as well as transferring over some of the better tech teams from the Chinese minors. It also unlocks much better naval teams for communists.

As to the image size, I reduced them a little bit for this update but I had a tough timr retaining legibility.

Creslin 认识你很高兴! 我很喜欢你的AAR. 共产的工艺学组可以。 可是你不喜欢他们因为他们没有海军组。

Winner I did for this update, but unless photobucket increases the size after uploading, they should only be around 1 MB per image.

BritishImperial Victory.

Maj. von Mauser I do to. Also, since all my pictures are already taken, giving people the whole screen helps answer questions about dissent, resources, etc.

And now the Anti Bandit Campaign!
 
The Battle for Xianyang.

25年 3月 1日

The opening phase of the nationalist push into the Shaanxi Soviet would be known as the battle for Xianyang. Xianyang, located some 15 miles to the northwest of Xi'an proper, was considered the best place for nationalists to cross the Han river and seize control of the Guangzhong plain. The Nationalists had almost 200,000 troops on the southern side of the river. On the communist side, Zhou Enlai only had command of some 40,000 men. These were slightly better quality, having many survivors of the Long March, but trying to hold the Guangzhong plain against the conventionally superior nationalists was deemed suicide.

The plan was for the nationalists to advance on a broad front, essentially a recreation of the blockhouse strategy that had almost destroyed the communists in 1932. No more than half a mile would separate advancing nationalist divisions and upon arrival at the mountains, every single river valley would have at least a brigade sized force advancing northward. It was also hoped that by attacking on such a broad front, the communist leadership might also be unable to form an effective defensive strategy.

The feint from Tianshui in the west was intended to pull troops from the east west to defend the Wushaoling pass,holding them there to be smashed by the main advance from the south. Falkenhausen was quoted in his memoirs, saying, "No western military would have attempted it, a 270 km advance along some of the worst roads imaginable, only supplied by oxcarts and mules."

-- The Nationalist phase of the Guomindang, Lloyd E. Eastman

1936-guangzhong-plain.png



The initial phase of the attack was successful. All forces crossed the river and the Guangzhong plain was secured. Chiang's forces moving up from Baoji were the first to come under enemy fire.

1936-3-1-the-attack.png


25年 3月 3日

Two days into the attack, things were not going well. The Communists had not been idle during the past few months and had constructed a series of fortifications within the Qingling mountains. They were designed to be used and abandoned very quickly. Communist forces would defend a particular approach for a few hours and then move under cover of darkness to another fort nearby. The most stunning example of this was a company under Yang Chengwu. In a period of 56 hours, 145 communist soldiers fought 16 engagements across 40 km of territory. In each engagement, Nationalist forces, totaling some 9,000 troops all together, were convinced that they were opposed by a force equal in numbers to their own. A communist defense that lasted two hours might halt a similar force for a day. In many instances, the forts would be reoccupied after they had been cleared to make sure that nationalist forces had to stop and destroy any forts they came across. Several Guomindang divisions even became convinced that they were fighting a superior enemy and refused to move forward. The entire advance seemed about to collapse under its own weight.

1936-3-3-the-attack-continu.png


Two things would insure that this didn't happen. Chiang Kai Shek had brought enough men. He could lose half his force and still massively outnumber the communists. This advance would not be undone by one weak link, because this time there was more than one chain. If one force stopped moving there were forces nearby that would keep pushing forward. The strategy also made it impossible for the communists to get the crucial ambush in that could be used as a victory. Nationalist forces might be stopped by delaying tactics but the communists had been unable to mass enough forces at any single point to force a retreat or an ambush.

The second thing was Guomindang airpower. Not only did it cause havoc on communist troops caught in between fortified positions, it also was used to induce friendly forces that had stopped into advancing. Commanders who had run into resistance and didn't want to move any further inevitably justified it by talking about how many enemy forces they faced and how unbreakable the fortifications were. These dispatches would be sent to the airforce and bombers would be dispatched to attack the fortifications while simultaneously dropping pamphlets exhorting the troops to advance. The communist forces were usually not in residence anymore, but the air attack allowed nationalist generals to save face as the lack of opposition was attributed to successful air strikes and not their own incompetence. Of the 15,000 casualties reportedly inflicted by the airforce during the offensive, around 14,000 are thought to only have existed in the minds of frightened nationalist officers. Regardless, after three days, Zhou Enlai signaled the general retreat to Yan'an and nationalist forces found little further resistance. Even so, Nationalist casualties were in the thousands and many divisions, not having great morale to begin with, had entirely lost the will to fight.

1936-3-3-the-attack-victori.png


In an interesting footnote, the diversionary attack from the west worked almost too well. Communist forces from Pingliang were convinced that this was the main offensive and counterattacked south to take the crossing at Tianshui. Fortunately for the Nationalists, this came after Zhou Enlai had ordered the retreat north, so the forces in Tianshui were given permission for a strategic withdrawal.

25年 3月 17日

After occupying the southern section of the Yan'an soviet, it became clear that pushing on to Yan'an itself would be impossible. Communist forces had made an orderly retreat, smashing bridges and roads as they moved north before finally arriving in Yan'an where they enjoyed massive peasant support and a huge home field advantage. The Nationalists for their part had used up all of their surplus supplies getting in the previous advance and, while they were secure in their current position, they weren't able to move forward. The battle for Xianyang had been won because the Nationalists had been attacking from several different directions, forcing the communists to spread out beyond their ability to coalesce and ambush effectively. The approaches to Yan'an were much more limited and the communists were entrenched and would undoubtedly be able to wreck the morale of the advancing army through ambushes and feints. Even if they did reach Yan'an itself, Mao would have ample time to flee west with the leadership, and more crucially, the codes and radios that allowed him to talk to the Comintern. Chiang Kai Shek needed another avenue of assault.

Relations between Chiang Kai Shek and the self appointed "model governor" of Shanxi were strained. Yan Xishan had seized control of Shanxi as part of the original 1911 revolution and been it's military dictator ever since. Though officially part of the Beiyang army, he was able to maintain his neutrality and independence through the early republic period because Taiyuan, his capital, was one of the few cities in China that could produce modern artillery. He joined the Guomindang only after it became clear that the 1926 Northern Expedition would be successful. Fearing Chiang's growing power, he had supported the leftist head of the Guomindang, Wang Jingwei, in his attempts to wrest control away from Chiang Kai shek, and had even opposed him militarily in the the 1930's Central Plains war. More alarmingly, there had even been rumors of him having CCP domestic advisors, and allowing communist troops to expand into territories under his control. Even though the 12 pointed sun flew over his territory, his relationship with Nanjing was decidedly strained.

Though, officially, Chiang Kai Shek was in command of Yan Xishan's forces, in practice it would take a lot of inducements to gain his cooperation and move those troops.

1936-3-17-alliance-chances.png


Coercing him into an alliance was not easy. First, it was promised that his troops would take only a supporting role and would not be required to advance against entrenched enemy forces. Secondly, Yan Xishan was to be given the Vice Chairmanship of military council and would be entitled to 10% of the central government's military supplies.

More convincing than these incentives, was the success of the first phase of the offensive. Beating the Communists had enhanced the prestige of the Central Army and if it were to achieve total victory by itself, Chiang Kai Shek's position as head of the party and government, already strong, would be made unassailable by the well spring of popular support. Yan Xishan saw two possible outcomes.

He could wait hampering the current war effort, but be inevitably sidelined when the nationalists won. Or he could join in, ensuring a quick victory and get a portion of the prestige and be able wring out concessions from Chiang Kai Shek that would be unavailable later.

1936-3-17-alliance-yes.png


In the South, Communist forces arrived in Tianshui, only to be ambushed by the previously withdrawn divisions.

1936-3-17-Tianshui-comes-ba.png


25年 3月 19日

Upon hearing news of the alliance, Mao was furious. He told Zhou Enlai to punish the would be warlord. The "Eastern Expedition," which had been shelved in February in the face of the nationalist buildup, was reexamined. Inside the Red Army, feelings were mixed. Zhou Enlai and Peng Dehuai were both convinced that while they could win an attack against Taiyuan, it would certainly turn Yan Xishan from a reluctant antagonist into a bitter foe.

The original plan had called for a move east couched under the aegis of "fighting the Japanese" in order to break the nationalist blockade. The plan had called for 8,000 troops and a much greater distance between the southern and eastern fronts. Zhu De and Mao were still convinced of its viability hoped that it would put Yan Xishan on the defensive and force him to pull troops back to defend the capital and break the encirclement. A further aim was to be seen as more Anti Japanese then the Guomindang and cause dissent across China. The plan was modified by tripling the troop commitment and changing one of the objectives to that of Yan Xishan himself. Zhou Enlai's star was already low, having been blamed for the loss at Xianyang, while Zhu De had been victorious in Lanzhou and Tianshui so the plan went forward.

1936-3-19-they-attack.png


25年 3月 25日

It would go down in history as Mao's Napoleon moment. Communist forces were easily able to rout the few divisions defending Taiyuan. But upon hearing this, Chiang Kai shek immediately flew a radio operator to Yan Xishan's interim headquarters in Shijiazhuang and allowed him to order the assault on Mao, hoping that Yan Xishan would see that a victory in Yan'an would invariably force the troops advancing on Taiyuan to be recalled. Six days into their advance Communist divisions came under assault. They were still superior in every respect besides numbers, but nationalists were attacking from multiple directions and were further bolstered by Yan Xishan's commitment of 40,000 troops attacking from the north and east.

1936-3-23-our-attack.png


25年 3月 26日

Communist forces fought bravely, but, in the words of one Red Army veteran, "there seemed to be troops on every hill." This was not an exaggeration as there had been enough troops attacking to seize every last bit of defensible terrain in Yan'an. Zhou Enlai would flee with most of his forces, but there hadn't been time to pack up the government apparatus for transport. Even more crucial, Mao and several members of the politburo had been unable to flee westward before the troops from Shanxi closed off the route. Without Mao and deprived of it's base of support, the CCP would no longer be able to function.

1936-3-26-victory-yanan.png


After the victory, Chiang Kai Shek took 120,000 troops to continue the advance under his direct command, but the rest were ordered south and told to take up positions bordering the irritatingly independent Guangxi clique.

1936-3-26-reassignment.png


25年 3月 28日

Initial intelligence was proved wrong when an irate Mao personally ordered 60,000 communist troops to attack Tianshui. However, he needed more than just a victory. He needed a territorial gain to restore his own legitimacy within the party. If Yan'an was taken before the Tianshui base area could be established, the communists would lose support from the peasants as it would be clear that the Red Army could not protect them

1936-3-28-tianshui-attacked.png


The communist victory now made it a race between two armies moving in opposite directions. Who would reach their objective first? The Nationalists heading north or communists heading south?

1936-3-28-tianshui-beaten.png


25年 4月 7日

Italy annexed Ethiopia and the Chinese did not care. At all. Seriously, why would they?

1936-4-7-italy-annexes-ethi.png



25年 4月 8日

More important was the arrival Chiang's forces in Yan'an. As Chiang surveyed Mao's vacated cave palace, he commented that it was more luxurious than his own residence in Nanjing. In a stroke of luck, several documents relating to the disposition and location of the remaining armies and supply caches had been left behind. It ended up vindicating the Generalissimo as it showed that communist forces were only about half as numerous as previously thought and that his blockade had been successful. Communist forces were on their last legs and and had been forced in the last few weeks to start requisitioning supplies from the poor and middle peasants, as the property of the landlords and rich peasants had long since been removed inside the base areas.

1936-4-8-at-yanan.png


Confident of their eventual defeat and with the proof to back it up, Chiang convened a conference with every member of the communist leadership he could get his hands on.

Wang Jingwei was used as the front man as he had better leftist credentials then Chiang. In return for complete demobilization, the communists were promised 50 seats on the newly created People's Political Council and a pledge not to reverse the land reforms already carried out.

In addition, 100,000 Yuan and a general amnesty was promised to any soldiers who captured Mao, with lesser rewards promised for the rest of the senior leadership. The award would be collected 45 members of Mao's own retinue. Two days before, in the dead of night, Mao was awakened and put on his litter to be moved "away" from the advancing Nationalists, leaving the rest of his troops to form an unwitting rearguard. Truthfully, he was in fact being spirited towards Nationalist lines and would not realize his predicament until he was well away from the camp. The kidnappers were mostly newer recruits, but the ringleaders were a group of long march veterans that had been disaffected by Mao's control of the party and his increasing political persecution. Mao would die 3 months later of a "bladder infection," Zhou Enlai was said to have laughed.**

The other large revelation was the extent to which the Comintern and the CCP had been communicating. The discovery of this link meant massive embarrassment for the Soviets if it was made public. The Soviets anticipated this and had in the previous month had denounced the entire CCP as "Trotskyists," to give themselves deniability. It became clear for the remaining communist armies that linking up with the Russians was never going to be a viable strategy. The last real base area had been eliminated and there was nowhere to run to this time. On April 8th, the formal demobilization of the Red Army was ordered.

1936-4-8-annex-time.png


25年 4月 20日

Having eliminated the Communists, the Guomindang started courting Western powers. England, America and France had all been reluctant to increase ties with China as long as there was strife with the communists. Chiang's solution definitely left something to be desired, but they had to agree that their conditions had been met.

1936-4-20-trade-with-englan.png


25年 5月 23日

Hu Hanmin had died in Guangdong on May 12th. He had been an important figure in the Guomindang, and had succeeded Sun Yat Sen as Premiere until the post was eliminated in 1931. His support had given the warlords of South China a stamp of legitimacy that Chiang had been unwilling or unable to challenge. They had used this to set up an autonomous government that, though flying the same flag as Nanking, was perfectly free to ignore it's directives. The victory over the communists made Chiang confident enough to issue an ultimatum to the warlords, throwing the gauntlet down at Hu's funeral. Meanwhile, his own forces marched south in case the answer was no. Only a few allied forces were left in the north to keep a watchful eye on Yan Xishan.

1936-5-21-redeployments-con.png


25年 6月 6日

The Japanese reinforced their armies and Chiang was forced to reluctantly accept it. Dissent rose massively across China and the Southern warlords used it as a cover to move north and attack nationalist forces with the goal of deposing Chiang Kai Shek.

1936-6-5-Japan-reinforces.png


1936-6-6-Guangxi-declares.png


25年 6月 10日

The Nationalists needed help and the idea was floated of a formal alliance with Germany.* Who it was hoped would be impressed by China's newfound anti Bolshevik credentials.

1936-6-6-not-good.png


Prospects did not look promising.

Up next, the war with Guangxi and some creative uses for railroads.

**Zhou Enlai died in 1976 of the same ailment. Though it was initially detected in 1973, Zhou's doctors, under Mao's orders, concealed the diagnosis and he wasn't able to receive treatment until 1974 when the cancer had already become inoperable. It's thought that Mao was desperately afraid of Zhou outliving him as Zhou was privy to all of Mao's secrets.

*I canceled the alliance with Shanxi and Xibei San Ma in June. From a narrative standpoint, Yan Xishan was only allied with Chiang under the threat of the communists and would have pushed for his own autonomy again after their defeat. Strangely enough, I maintained control of many expeditionary forces from Xibei San Ma without being allied.
 
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sweet, i've never been able to take the communists down in time. they're almost invincible in those mountains, but not for you.
 
BritishImperial said:
sweet, i've never been able to take the communists down in time. they're almost invincible in those mountains, but not for you.


He moved the event backwards. But in any case, it can be done if you move incredibly fast.
 
You should resave future screenshots as jpegs. Cost about one-tenth of space.

Otherwise, good so far.
 
Herbert West said:
You should resave future screenshots as jpegs. Cost about one-tenth of space.

Otherwise, good so far.

PNGs are better. Only marginally larger than JPEGs if at all and much better quality. I only use PNGs.
 
Excellent, so far on of the best NatChi AARs out there.

You could alter teach team take over from the options menu every time you load.

Your aggressive strategy works wonders and its as efficient at it could be. Too bad that in vanilla the forced peace has huge probabilities of happening unhistorical soon!

Good luck!
 
BritishImperial - It's all about timing. The last troops will finish their march on February 28. (I give the slowest division offensive supply, otherwise it's March 3) You have to wait long enough so that your dissent goes down and the troops reorg (at .27 every day), but not so long that the Xi'an event fires. If you attack too early, it'll take another month to regain the lost organization. Also, use the bomber in Chengdu, I used to ignore it, it's surprisingly helpful.

trekaddict I only disabled it until may, though now I wish I'd left it in. If I'd left it in I still would have won, it just would have taken two weeks longer, (The dissent hit is tough) but I also could have been allied with the Germans by June (they love the authoritarianism move. ) That being said, I could have just said nothing about moving the event and everyone would have assumed that it just hadn't fired in time. If you can win by early April, there's a decent chance you made the cutoff.

Herbert West The pictures are taken until November of 37 so re saving is a hassle. After then, I'll probably do my screengrabs as Jpeg's

elbasto Thanks, but I'm desperately afraid that Blue Emu will make good on his threat to do a China AAR, leaving me toiling in obscurity.

Thank you all so much for reading!


I suppose you all also want an update. Fine.
 
25年 6月 16日

Guizhou was one of the more backwards parts of China. With almost half it's population being non Han ethnic minorities, control of the countryside had always been a problem for the central government, even during the imperial period. Nanjing had only gained control in the past 5 years as the local warlords reluctantly allowed central government forces to chase the fleeing Red Army. Before then it had served as a no man's land where neither Guilin or Nanjing had any jurisdiction.

The Guangxi clique moved first. 15,000 troops moved north into Guizhou with hopes of stirring up rebellion among the peasants.

1936-6-16-kaili-lost.png


25年 6月 19日

The southern troops were attacked three days later from multiple directions. The main force moving down from Haihua were largely veterans of the Fifth Encirclemnt campaign against the Communists and had been over this territory before in the pursuit of the long march. They were supported by troops from both Shaoyang and Guiyang. The nationalists were operating on familiar ground and even had the "New Model Division" with them.* This division had been constituted in late 1935 as a testing bed for plans to modernize the rest of the army and as such was comparable to a European division in terms of training and equipment. Southern forces had no choice besides a hasty withdrawal.

1936-6-19-attack-kaili-deta.png


25年 6月 22日

Hengyang had been siezed at the beginning hostilities as it sat astride the strategic JingGuang railroad running from Guangdong to Beijing. This alarmed nationalist military planners who knew that, given time, this city could be fortified into an important supply depot. A collection of irregular troops in Zhuzhou were ordered to march south and attack the position before more troops could be moved in. Support form troops in Shaoguan made all the difference and victory was assured.

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25年 6月 23日

Longyan had been seized as it served as an important gateway city. The goods from Fujian, Guangdong and Jiangxi were through merchants in the area and whoever controlled it gained a huge benefit in terms of tax revenues and logistic support. It had also not gone unnoticed that the eastern coast was almost completely devoid of government troops and a fast enough advance could threaten the rich coastal provinces of central China that were the base of the Guomindang's support.

Li Zongren had moved north and seized it with his personal army of 10,000 troops as well as a further 15,000 troops cobbled together from minor warlords. His troops were busy fortifying into the hilly terrain when Falkenhausen finished redeploying some 100 miles to the north. Falkenhausen, for his part, had decided that speed was more important than resupply and his troops were ordered to make a somewhat foolhardy attack before they had resupplied fully.

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25年 6月 24日

After a day of fighting, it became clear that Falkenhausen's troops were both more numerous and more mobile. He used the battle as a test bed for some of the tactics that would later be incorporated into official Revolutionary Army doctrine. Drawing on his experience fighting the Red Army, Guomindang forces were ordered copy the communists, attacking in one position, winning if possible, but moving on if resistance proved to strong. This induced a sort of paralysis in the southern command as the main attack seemed to be coming from everywhere and nowhere and isolated units were being picked off with overwhelming force. A retreat was forced to be ordered as half of the defending forces were already retreating without authorization.

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25年 6月 25日

Troops advancing to defend Ganzhou found themselves blocked by enemy troops commanded by Bai Chongxi who had also been rushing to occupy the city. This was especially odd as he was supposedly commanding nationalist forces near Guiyang. Though they outnumbered the defenders, nationalist forces had not been expecting any opposition, and were ambushed at night in mountainous terrain. The advance was forced to halt

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25年 7月 1日

Military planners with the help of leading industrialists unveiled a new method of centrally supplying the army. The war with the communists had revealed some glaring weaknesses in the logistics situation and those lessons had then been applied to the problems of national supply. A crucial innovation was changing to a system of rear area supply dumps supplied by government railroad. This was based on the provisional supply stockpiles that had been built up in Xi'an in the previous war with the communists.

The lack of dissent and communist sabotage also made it possible to use railroads to move large numbers of troops long distances for the first time . Chiang's forces in Yichang would be the first to board trains heading towards the front.

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Resources of the government were then put towards a census tabulating machine. Many of China's governance problems were further exacerbated by sheer volume. Whereas Belgium might have to process several thousand housing requests or building permits, China, by virtue of it's population had to do millions. It was hoped that this would help streamline government projects and take some of the weight off the bureaucracy.

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25年 7月 5日

Hengyang was attacked again, this time with overwhelming force. 16,000 ill equipped former warlord troops faced almost 100,000 troops attacking from four directions.

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A retreat was ordered quickly to preserve both the lives and morale of these soldiers.

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25年 7月 7日

More bad news arrived for the Guomindang when Fuzhou, the capital of Fujian province, fell to troops advancing along the coast. There was nothing to stop them advancing north to seize Nanjing and Shanghai or, alternatively, marching west to cut off Falkenhausen's advance.

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25年 7月 8日

Eager to reverse the tide of southern expansion, a second attack on Ganzhou was ordered. The same troops that had been ejected weeks earlier advanced again. This time they were well rested and prepared. They were also supported by Falkenhausen making flank attacks from the southeast. Enemy forces would be forced to make a long soggy journey south, as it was the height of the rainy season.

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25年 7月 13日

Chiang had been increasingly alarmed by the news from the front and, on the thirteenth of July, he received his first opportunity to do something about it. His troops had just finished disembarking in Nanping when they were ordered into a massive assault on the city of Fuzhou. 120,000 of Chiang's personal forces met 14,000 warlord forces. The battle would be over after the first artillery barrage, as the defending forces weren't paid nearly enough to fight to the death.

It also served as an important propaganda coup for nationalists who had been worried about the perception that they had left the coastal provinces defenseless.

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25年 7月 17日

As misery loves company, Chinese people everywhere were delighted to hear that Spain had fallen into their own civil war.

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25年 7月 18日

The "New Model Division" had seen widespread success in the past few months and the military planners were delighted to announce the official reorganization of the entire Revolutionary army along those same lines.

At the same time, money was invested into expanding the industry as China's military and civilian population had an ever increasing demand for manufactured products.

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25年 7月 23日

Nationalist forces arrived in Ganzhou only to come under immediate attack from the south. The numbers and quality of both forces was roughly even, but the Guangxi forces were attacking into mountains, at night and had not entirely recovered from their previous defeat. They would be forced to break off the attack before morning.

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25年 7月 26日

Chiang Kai Shek was alarmed when it became apparent that a substantial army of enemy troops had slipped through a narrow gap in nationalist lines. Their objective seemed to be airfield at Nancheng, the loss of which would deprive the nationalists of bomber support. An attack was immediately ordered from Zhuzhou and Ganzhou to close the gap.

Once discovered, enemy forces were forced to withdraw as they were outnumbered and their line of retreat was at risk of being cut off.

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1936年 7月 27日

A simultaneous attack was launched from Fuzhou on Quanzhou. Chiang's armies were moving south with a vengeance and it became clear that the east had been left intentionally undefended so that the enemy would think the main attack was coming from the west. Two months into the war, almost two thirds of the Guomindang was deployed in the east opposed by only a smattering of real troops.

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1936年 7月 30日

His troops sufficiently rested, Falkenhausen was impatient to move on Guanghzhou, known as "Canton" to the West. To do that, he needed to advance into Guangdong, nominally the home territory of the Guangxi clique. The gateway was Chao'an, known as the Phoenix City. This marked the first time in the war that Nationalist forces had advanced into enemy territory as opposed to just regaining that which had been lost.

At the same time, an attack was launched against Hengyang from the north and west as it was the last bit of Nationalist territory that the Clique still held.

Li Zongren once again found himself out gunned and outfoxed, and, coupled with the simultaneous victory in Hengyang, the tide was definitely turning against the South.

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1936年 8月 7日

A week later, Falkenhausen arrived in Chao'an only to come under immediate attack. It became clear quite quickly that these forces were merely relief forces arriving to defend and not a concerted counter offensive. They were forced to break off immediately.

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Chiang Kai Shek advanced against Xiamen. The troops defending it fled without fighting.

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1936年 8月 11日

Guangzhou was in sight. As the birthplace of the Guomindang, it's independence from Nanjing was seen as an insult. The original site of the Whampoah military academy, arguably the single greatest asset in Chiang's rise to power, was located on the outskirts. As for the Generalissimo himself, he had never intended to leave permanently, but matters of war and state had kept him from from seeking anything more than willing cooperation from the warlords in the South. Capturing Guangdong would be a very important step in showing the regional powers that Chiang Kai Shek was not merely "first among equals," but the leader of the country.

Falkenhausen's force, with help from troops in Ganzhou, would launch the attack. Most of the defending commanders, fearing the wrath of Chiang Kai Shek, had taken as much of the city's wealth as they could get their hands on and fled to Hong Kong. Falkenhausen's troops easily routed the outnumbered and leaderless defenders.

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1936年 8月 15日

Li Zongren again found himself hounded by Falkenhausen as his forces in Shaoguan came under attack from both north and south. It was the last territory along the JingGuang railroad that the southern warlords controlled and thus had to be taken in order to insure a steady stream of supplies to Guangzhou. He was once again forced to flee. The Guangxi clique had lost almost a third of its original territory in two months and Chiang showed no sign of stopping.**

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1936年 8月 18日

During the past few months, Chinese diplomats had been working furiously to build closer relations with the Germans. Success was notable as reports from Falkenhausen and other members of the German mission spoke highly of the newfound professionalism within the armies and the impressive string of victories didn't hurt either. That success was limited, however. Many top level Nazis remained convinced that an alliance with China would needlessly provoke Japan who was seen at that time as a better counterweight to Stalin. Also not helping China's case was its lack of fascist ideology.

While Chiang's New Life Movement and the so called blue shirts did try to emulate the Germans and listed Hitler and Mussolini as their inspirations, the Nanjing government was not willing to abandon the rhetoric of tutelage by the party until true democracy. The People's Political Council was an emasculated body with only the power to advise, but it's existence did much to mollify accusations of a dictatorship. The Germans were not quite willing to commit to someone who wasn't fiercely proud of being authoritarian.

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Up next, the war continues and trickery abounds!

* Nationalist China starts with one 1936 division.

** The "Guangxi clique sues for peace event" only fires when 30% their core territory is taken. However, only Bose, Liuzhou, Guilin, Nanning, Wuzhou and Qinzhou are actually cores. Any gains outside of these six territories don't matter. (this was not my insight. It came from someone else on a Nat China thread. and I can't remember who. Also, NitrateCupcake holds the fastest recorded victory over the commies, clocking at March 28)
 
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Capibara Yay! a new reader. There are a few scary moments later on but I wrote this AAR as a sort of answer to all the threads that ask "How do I beat Japan?" This means I have to deliver on that.

Creslin 谢谢你, 我希望我可以继续写。 你好奇一九六年在都中国的饭到去? 毛给那个到俄国, 俄国给中国飞机,潜水艇,核的帮助。 很多中国人也俄死了。 因为我的中文不太好,我也写英文。

Did you ever wonder where all the food that the govenrment took during the Great Leap Forward went? Mao traded all of it to the Russians and the soviet bloc in exchange for military aid. It's no coincidence that East Germany was able to end rationing in 1959.

As for keeping it up, Here goes nothing...
 
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