Put the wAAR in wAARlord: 1936 Guangxi Clique

[eqqman]

Put the wAAR in wAARlord: Guangxi Clique AAR

Greetings, and welcome to my second AAR. In my first, I took on the role of Hungary and tried to help get Europe into Communist hands. That didn’t quite go so well, but it was fun trying. In this game, I will leave Europe for the first time and try a country I haven’t seen any other reports on: the Guangxi Clique in China.

This will be a challenge for me since I will likely need a navy at one point and I’m afraid I don’t understand the naval game very well. My goals for this game will be:

• Get into the Axis
• Conquer as much of China as I can before Japan does
• Sweep as many of the Allies as I can out of the South Pacific, capping it off with the conquest of India, Australia, and New Zealand
• Administer a coup de grace against a major power

Who knows if any of this will be possible, but I will give it a shot. As in my previous work I will not focus much on storytelling, but I will try to make it interesting.

”Tell me how I’m funny” – Tommy DeVito

I don’t know much about the historical Clique and information seems sparse on the web. Most searches link back to the same poorly written (I assume due to language translation issues) article on Wikipedia, and, ironically, Hearts of Iron websites.

The long and short of it though, is that what the game calls the Guangxi Clique is in fact the New Guangxi Clique, the strongmen from the Old Guangxi Clique having been deposed in the early 20s. The Clique was adamantly opposed to Chiang and the Nationalists until the Japanese takeover of Manchukuo, at which point they became staunchly loyal. In my new timeline, the Japanese government is run by more moderate individuals who are genuinely interested in a legitimate “Co-Prosperity Sphere” with equal partners and not just Japanese economic slaves. Our shared goals will be an Asia freed from European colonial influence.

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Table of Contents

• Chapter One: 1936 – Road to War
• Chapter Two: 1938 – Year of the Earth Tiger
• Chapter Three: 1939 – Danzig or War? Too Late!
• Chapter Four: 1940, first half – The Balloon Goes Up
• Chapter Five: 1940, second half – Hard Times at Ridgemont High
• Chapter Six: 1941, first half – Bad Day at Black Rock
• Chapter Seven: 1941, second half – Rest & Refit
• Chapter Eight: 1942, Winter – Java Campaign
• Chapter Nine: 1942, April – Borneo Campaign
• Chapter Ten: 1942, Summer – The Heady Days of Summer
• Chapter Eleven: 1942, Fall – Thunder Down Under
• Chapter Twelve: 1943, Winter – We Bag Us a Lion
• Chapter Thirteen: 1943, Spring – Kiwi Campaign
• Chapter Fourteen: 1943, Summer & Fall – Mopping Up
• Chapter Fifteen: 1944, WInter – The Fat Lady is on in Five

[Henry v. Keiper]

Interesting change you're making. I'll be keeping an eye out. Do you think you'll have a fighting chance at knocking out the major allied powers from Asia?

[KyrionMyrthar]

Watching closely!

[eqqman]

Welcome all!

"Do you think you'll have a fighting chance at knocking out the major allied powers from Asia?"

I would assume (and we know how wonderful assumptions are) that most of the SE Pacific will be thinly garrisoned enough that I can get quite a bit of territory. If people are saying you can easily make landings in England with Germany's starting naval forces without a lot of difficulties, then I would count that as a bonus. The big question mark will be what the United States does. Frankly I will be hoping Japan can deal with them well enough that I can focus solely on the other local powers.

[eqqman]

1936 – Road to War

First I take a quick review of the countryside. The southern tip of China is basically all mountains and jungle with poor infrastructure- 40% or less in most territories. I don’t know if I will ever find myself in a position to fix that. I have an ongoing alliance with Nationalist China to the north but none of the other factions. With my alliance I can get a peek at RoC troops, and I seem to have nearly equal numbers. Also, the high VP centers are all much closer to me compared with the Japanese on the coast. If I ditch the alliance and go for an attack, I could conceivably be the one to annex them. However, with a starting neutrality of 70 I won’t be able to do that before they end up at war with the Japanese, which means I will have to try and get an alliance with Japan and/or transit rights to discourage attack until I can get into the Axis. Likewise the Yunnan Clique has their main VP city right on my border: the minute I can get to war, I could probably beat them. Right in the middle on the coast I have Macau and Hong Kong… obviously prime targets once I get to war with the Allies. Something that is notable is that this is the first Minor country I’ve played that didn’t start the game with a resource shortage. Rare materials are low, but it is still showing a small gain for now.

The OOB is quite simple, with most divisions attached directly to the main theatre HQ; intermediate HQs are few in number. The divisions are a mix of Militia and Infantry with two brigades in each division. I will likely improve the Infantry divisions with a mixture of Artillery and Engineers. I also have one Transport fleet and one Interceptor. Long-term I don’t see myself buying anything but Infantry for the army unless I can get a license from an Axis power.

My officer count is low so I can’t supply a lot of new HQs, but since I have good manpower I will create some extra HQs under the assumption I will get them officered later. One thing I quickly discover is that I don’t even have enough leaders to cover all my divisions. I use the OOB browser to fire everybody and then check to see who is deserving of the top jobs in the hierarchy. As you can see my choices aren’t that great. Only a couple of these guys have the Logistics Wizard trait. Note that only one additional leader is not shown in this picture.

The Politics screen is easy to adjust- there are no possible replacements for anybody. I’m happy to see that none of these guys carries a malus on them. All the corrupt ministers must be hanging out up north with Chiang. The Mobilize button says I need 0 manpower to fully mobilize, I take that to mean none of my men are reserve units, which is fine with me. I can’t change any of my laws until I get my neutrality down.

For my Spies, I do the usual routine of removing the starting send Priority so I can focus my efforts on Yunnan and the Nationals. I also remember to get my local men working on lowering my neutrality.

On the tech front, my Clique is practically swimming in leadership. I’ve never seen a Minor with leadership this high! In this game, I will focus more on developing Infantry and Artillery and buy everything else from allies.

For production, I see that my men have vastly outdated equipment, but my needs for consumer goods are too high so I don’t have any ICs to spare to buy them new guns. Hoping to fix a mistake I made last game, this time I queue up enough Artillery to fit out nearly all my existing divisions. All of these are getting built as reserves, which gives a dramatic drop in IC cost (going from about 4 to 1). I’m also swimming in manpower and queuing all this Artillery doesn’t make a dent in it.

On the diplomacy front, I start to align to the Axis and I request transit rights from Japan. With that, I think I’m about ready to start.

(Click)

1 January: Japan grants me transit rights. The green tip or whatever you want to call it tells me I can already switch to War Economy, but when I visit the Politics screen, it says I cannot afford the cost to change. I have no idea why that would be the case. I am however able to bump up to 1-year draft.

7 February: Japan accepts transit rights from me, but an Alliance is listed as “Impossible”.

2 March: I now have 10 Spies in Yunnan and with the Nationalists, so I switch up to spending most of my leadership on research. My neutrality level is 66 for joining the Axis, the report says I need to get below 25, which confuses me since it is usually 50 you need to drop below. I’m allowed to change my laws to War Economy. The extra increase in ICs means I’m now in the red on producing resources.

27 March: Ethiopia surrenders to Italy and becomes a puppet.

8 May: The Spanish Civil War starts.

19 May: I get the event for the Foreign Ministry, and decide to take the dissent since I don’t want to drift away from the Axis. Maybe to have less dissent in the future we can simply gussy up the ministry building with some new curtains instead of firing everybody.

2 June: I notice that the Nationals are starting to do counterintelligence, so I add another 1.0 points to making Spies to cover my losses.

10 June: Artillery units are starting to trickle in.

2 August: I nationalize the private sector. Is this a permanent bonus?

28 November: I start to add Convoys to the production queue.

30 November: I notice I’m still losing Spies, so I add more points to making new ones. I suppose my rivals must have ministers that are giving them plenty of inherent counterespionage bonus.

20 March, 1937: I have a small surplus of free Spies, so I bump research back up to 8.5.

30 March: The UK starts to influence me, annoying me to no end.

31 March: The UK stops influencing me, making me less annoyed. My faction join value is 38.18, I need to get below 25.

23 April: The UK does the same thing again where they influence me and then cancel the next day.

21 June: I dissolve my alliance with the Republic of China so I don’t find myself at war with Japan. I’ve been constantly checking as the game progresses to see if I can get into an alliance with the Japanese, but the button always reads ‘impossible’. As a matter of trivia, breaking the alliance is a pretty big hit in relations- I’ve gone from 200 to 120.

1 July: Japan declares war on Shanxi.

10 July: Japan joins the Axis.

21 August: I seem close to being able to join the Axis, so I mobilize my troops and move divisions into position for an attack on Yunnan.

9 September: Shanxi surrenders and becomes a Japanese puppet.

14 September: I join the Axis. Presumably we will crush the Bolsheviks, but I have several other fish to fry first. Axis membership tips me over the diplomatic breaking point so I can declare war with Yunnan. My laws go up to Service by Requirement and Total Economic Mobilization, plus I shift beaucoup leadership points to making officers until I fix the dire shortage I’m in.

I can also declare war on Nationalist China now, but I will wait a bit until I see how things go with Yunnan. Until I have more officers, no point in going nuts. With the ICs freed from consumer goods, I start to make some Airfields to build up construction practical. I can also start dealing with the backlog of upgrades.

16 September: Italy joins the Axis. I get the Pact of Steel effect.

23 September: Sinkiang joins the Comintern.

27 September: Heading into Yunnan. With all these mountains it will be a slow slog.

Speaking of the mountains, I look at my border with Chiang and see that he has left it completely empty. I declare war in the hopes that I can move into them while they stay that way. Any mountain I don’t have to fight for is a good one!

16 October: Attacks going on throughout the front. Nationalist Militia have shown up.

24 October: Communist China surrenders to Japan and is annexed. Chiang is trying to take Guilin. I expect to hold since I’m trying to envelop the city.

The war against Yunnan is not going so well. You never have Mountain troops when you need them!

2 November: The Yunnan front is in a bit of a retreat, but I’m doing okay against Chiang so I’m not worried yet. My officer count continues to climb.

27 November: I get Coal Donations.

6 December: I take Chongqing.

The factories there are immediately retooled…

7 December: Nationalist China surrenders to Japan and we split the country in the annexation. At least I got Chongqing out of it. I also get the Taiwan Strait effect which is very welcome.

11 December: I decide to cancel working on production for a while to get through the upgrade process. It looks like I am ridiculously behind in giving my men some new guns.

”You know, they stopped making these in 1902”
“Blast! Then I shall require a replacement weapon”
“You’re not a postal worker, are you?” – Gunshop owner and Van Pelt, Jumanji

This seems like a good place to stop… and hey, now they get to use a bigger font to write our country name on the world map.

[Thandros]

Nice start Now if you move quickly enough you might be able to get some Xibei san ma Territory by going through Yunnan

[Khazorath]

Right-wing authoritarian government made up of leftwing radicals.... eh?

[King50000]

Definately subscribing to this one. Maybe you can flank Yunnan by moving through Japanese China, once Xibei San Ma is pushed out

[Henry v. Keiper]

So far so good. Although, just a thought...will you ever turn against Japan at some point?

[eqqman]

Hello all!

Nice start Now if you move quickly enough you might be able to get some Xibei san ma Territory by going through Yunnan

Definately subscribing to this one. Maybe you can flank Yunnan by moving through Japanese China, once Xibei San Ma is pushed out

Yes, but since the Japanese are already up there since they started in the north while I have to move up from the south, I have another target in mind.

Right-wing authoritarian government made up of leftwing radicals.... eh?

Well, that's why we're the New Guangxi Clique!

So far so good. Although, just a thought...will you ever turn against Japan at some point?

Now that we're both in the Axis, this will be an impossibility. With any kind of a moderate navy, I might have been able to do something if I stayed out of the Axis, since I am always hearing that the Japanese AI leaves the home islands thinly defended. So I could pre-position naval forces to launch an invasion shortly after betraying them that might have some success.

[tommylotto]

Great start, but how are you going to take out a major? Japan? Axis, no. Italy through India, Persia, Turkey, Balkans? Axis, no. Can't be the US, that is not scheduled until the year 2020. Must be the Soviet Union...

[eqqman]

Great start, but how are you going to take out a major? Japan? Axis, no. Italy through India, Persia, Turkey, Balkans? Axis, no. Can't be the US, that is not scheduled until the year 2020. Must be the Soviet Union...

Hi!

Well, working to finish off the Soviet Union after the Bitter Peace is a possibility, since it always offends me to see the German AI massively guarding that border when there will be no further fighting on that front. But aside from that, the best thing about long-term plans is that you have a long time to plan them!

[IrationalFear]

Right-wing authoritarian government made up of leftwing radicals.... eh?

And Sinkiang has a Left-Wing Radical government with right-wing authoritiarian ministers.

Subscribing, but only if you promise to take New Zealand.

[eqqman]

Subscribing, but only if you promise to take New Zealand.

If the Ethiopians gave trouble to Italy, I'm sure the Maoris can cause enough problems for a Chinese warlord, but I'll see what I can do.

I've already gone through most of 1938, should have an update on Wednesday.

[KyrionMyrthar]

Excellent start. I'm guessing you'll go after SE Asia before Japan does?

[Thandros]

Yes, but since the Japanese are already up there since they started in the north while I have to move up from the south, I have another target in mind.

Your either going to wait to attack Indochina or Burma or your planning a naval Expedition to either Australia, New Zealand or Siam. Philippines are American puppets and I don't think you have the range to reach South Africa and Going to the Dutch East Indies is stupid as you may as well fight Britain. And that's it for targets unless you can go through Yunnan to Tibet and then Sinkiang but Sinkiang is in the Comintern so there not an option

[TheBromgrev]

Just some info, in case you're interested.

For some really, really, strange reason, Guangxi's province of Bose has 2.00 leadership. That's something like the 5th highest LS province in the world, behind the likes of Tokyo, London, Berlin, and Cambridge. I'm guessing that's a typo and it should be 0.20.

Now, about the mismatched party leaders. The KMT is a PA party in practice, but its members were from all ideologies except communist. Kind of like how the US Republican and Democratic parties have certain leanings, but their members represent a broad political spectrum. Wang Jingwei's left-leaning faction had its power base in the south (this group eventually would form the Chinese collaboration government after Japan took Nanjing), while Chiang's faction was based around Nanjing, with communists and local warlords everywhere else.

Technically, in-game Xinjiang, Guangxi, Yunnan, Shanxi, and Xibei San Ma (the 3 Mas) were all part of the RoC. The reason they're split up is to model the fact that the central government didn't have full control over those areas. Tibet is a special case. Unlike Taiwan, Manchukuo, Tannu Tuva, and Mongolia, which were recognized as "independent" nations or part of another nation by at least one other foreign government, no one recognized Tibet's declaration of independence from China in 1918. At the same time, the Chinese government was too busy dealing with the various warlords to bother bringing Tibet back under Chinese control. It wasn't until the communists expelled the KMT did China reassert control over Tibet. That's where the current situation came from. Tibet was never legally free (yes, a nation can be legally and illegally free, East Timor and Kosovo are good examples) and was never recognized as an independent nation by any other foreign power, but because the central government couldn't reassert control, Tibet was independent in practice for 30 years.

Theoretically, Guangxi should have cores in all of China, since it was just a different faction of the primary ruling party. The same doesn't apply to the other warlords though, as they were more or less interested in maintaining their own power and independence. The exception could be the Ma clique, which attacked Xinjiang in 1937, using a Uighur revolt as justification for removed the KMT-appointed governor, Sheng Shicai, from power. Too bad for the Mas, Sheng was a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), and had Stalin send in troops to help, in clear violation of the Sino-Soviet NAP. Later, the Ma clan would abandon Chiang and side with Mao.

[Henry v. Keiper]

For some really, really, strange reason, Guangxi's province of Bose has 2.00 leadership. That's something like the 5th highest LS province in the world, behind the likes of Tokyo, London, Berlin, and Cambridge. I'm guessing that's a typo and it should be 0.20.

Ha! I need to check if my file has the same error.

Technically, in-game Xinjiang, Guangxi, Yunnan, Shanxi, and Xibei San Ma (the 3 Mas)...

You know..."The Three Mas" would make a good band name...

[TheBromgrev]

Ha! I need to check if my file has the same error.

I'm 100% sure it does. When I meant typo, I meant that PI possibly made a typo and never fixed it. The only mod I'm aware of that changes this value is the HPP, because I was the one who changed it

[eqqman]

Just some info, in case you're interested.

For some really, really, strange reason, Guangxi's province of Bose has 2.00 leadership. That's something like the 5th highest LS province in the world, behind the likes of Tokyo, London, Berlin, and Cambridge. I'm guessing that's a typo and it should be 0.20.

I don't know if I am completely convinced that this should be considered a mistake. From what I've read, Li Zongren made the province a model of production after he agreed to bury the hatchet with Chaing during the war. These guys weren't just petty warlords, they were actually trying to build up the place. I have the feel that it was the best-run part of China during the period, so I wouldn't say they had a shortage of quality leadership all around. After the war, Chiang left Li holding the bag when he fled to Taiwan. The fact that the guy was willing to still keep making a go of things after Chiang looted the national treasury and still tried to keep control of the army, also smacks of some exceptional qualities there.

Li Zongren

Any transcribing of national qualities into values for a game is always going to be a hugely subjective process, though, so this is somewhat of a moot point. I could also see this being done just from a gameplay standpoint so that players have a chance to play a Chinese faction that might be able to make a go of things other than the Nationalists. I'm not sure why this would be such a hot issue that players feel compelled to mod it out, it seems like needless swipe at the Chinese factions who are already set up to get crushed by Japan anyway.