Cherry Blossoms at Kyoto

[blackdown]

Cherry Blossoms at Kyoto

A Japanese AAR

Preliminary notes: 1936 Grand campaign as Japan; difficulty set to very hard; ftm expansion; no cheats; no mods; Sacred Egoism at Mare Nostrum my italian aar to '43; Dai Nippon Teikoku - my previous Japanese AAR; playing till total victory, no time limit

Objectives

Major - Japanese conquest of the world
Minor - A non-aligned Japan

Planning

A major, decisive victory in China is necessary for hope of a Japanese world conquest. The rest of East Asia simply cannot provide the quantities of resources we will need to power a great power economy. After China we will follow the resources required to run a world beating industry.

This AAR will be a game based style and I will update in a chapter format. It is an attempt to right the wrongs of my last AAR after its ignomious ending.

Banzai!

The Emperor Hirohito on his stallion.

[blackdown]

Cherry Blossoms at Kyoto

Chapter I Planting the seeds of victory, 1st January 1936 - 30th June 1936
Part I Research Agenda
Part II Industrial production, politics and intelligence
Part III Land, Naval, Air OOB's, 24 weeks

Chapter II Assembling our Might, 1st July 1936 - 2nd June 1938
Part I 36 weeks
Part II 52 weeks
Part III Operation Logou overview, 9 weeks

Chapter III War, glorious war!, 2nd June 1938 - 29th June 1938
Part I 2 weeks
Part II 2 weeks

[Pj Fallon]

Are you abandoning the other one.

[blackdown]

Are you abandoning the other one.

Check the last update, I hope you understand.

[Saithis]

Good luck with this one.

[blackdown]

Chapter I Planting the seeds of victory
Part I Research agenda

Date: January 1st 1936

Land



For army superiority in China cavalry and infantry upgrades were ordered. We will explicitly disavow any motorised, engineer or tank divisions.

The available infantry research is at level '36, I wish to have level '38 implemented throughout the army before we entact the Marco Polo Bridge incident.



Supporting brigades of artillary will also have to be advanced.

For land doctorines



Operational level organisation to reduce delay between attacks.

Assault concentration for +5 org on artillary (low priority research)

Special forces 1936 for +10 mtn/mar org

Infantry warfare 1936 for +10 inf org

Mass assault for improved infantry morale +15%.

Integrated support 1936 for improved special forces morale.

Mechanised offensive for +10 cavalry org.


Airforce

For the Japanese airforce, we faced a choice of either producing masses of cheap planes that can be transferred to the navy at a later date - carrier air groups or developing specialist medium bombers. The cost of both forces is broadly similar for the return on attack abilities, with medium bombers being slightly more cost effective especially with regards to supply and having larger range. Until 1939, tactical bombers will only have +75 range advantage, at which point it can upgrade to +125 compared to an upgrade of +45km for 1939 tech carrier air groups.

Therefore the longer the war in China, the better the choice of tactical bombers. Ultimately producing CAGs can cut the cost of shifting to a fleet carrier style navy later. This will be by a factor of 50%, although such planes will no longer be available for army operations.

With this shift in mind, the slightly lesser performing CAGs can represent shadow naval spending in the early phase of the game. It should also be noted that with respect to doctorines, medium bombers offer high returns on leadership employed.

To prepare for CAG upgrades which unlock in 1939 Basic small fuel tanks and basic single engine airframes are to be researched as a low priority.

For air doctorines

CAS Ground attack tactics for +20% ground attack effiency

Although three doctorine upgrades could improve CAG morale, the returns were considered too low to have a place on our research agenda. +6, +4, +2 for the three alternative methods of improving CAG organisation.


Navy

Due to a lack of spare industry there will be no navy production for a few years and therefore research is not necessary until 1938. The choice of CAGs is already considered an oblique approach towards naval production and research.


Industry

Industrial production and effiency are the two key techs here, we also decided to research advanced construction engineering to enable railway improvements for supply movements.



Agriculture and education are also considered vital for the future of our nation.

Supply production is also queued as it increases the effective power of our ICs.

Supply theory are a future priority tech, but at 1938 levels and with 26 research projects already committed to, they will come in their time.

Leadership is allocated with 18.51 dedicated to research.

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Chapter I Planting the seeds of victory
Part II Industrial production, politics and intelligence

Date: January 1st 1936

Industrial Production

Overview of production strength and resource stockpiles.



A mountain corps of mtnx4 was ordered with a serial production order queued. These units will be necessary because the currency of the Japanese army in China is supply. These are the most supply efficent/firepower units available.



It was noted that a cavalry corps would consume 4 supply to 2.68 of a mountain corps. In response to this discovery, cavalry research is deprioritised but not abandoned. We will have to lower ambitions for cavalry corps, especially at the opening stage of a Chinese-Japanese war.



An upgrade of the naval base at Humhung is considered the top priority for all production projects. It is ordered serially with three more levels queued for a level 10 port by december 1938.

A destroyer already in production is not cancelled but will have minimal priority.

Five CAGs are ordered. Because of their long production lead periods they are given second priority to the Humhung port expansions. They cost a combined total of 17.32 ICs and will take 19 months to develop. This means over 1/3rd of our production budget will not complete until August 1937, ruling out the possibility of war with China until spring 1938.

Politics

The foreign minister Hayashi Senjuro is appointed with +10% peacetime intel.

The armament minister was replaced by Shoda Kazue, +20% supplies.

The new minister of security Ushio Shigenosuke provides +10% counterespionage.



This leaves three fascists in a cabinet of otherwise Paternal Autocrats of the ruling control clique faction.

Intelligence

Missions in the USSR, USA and UK changed to counter-espionage.

Nationalist China was given green level priority and the mission changed to military espionage.

Communist China and Shanxi were left at red level priority and given military espionage. Guanxi was given the same mission but with yellow priority.

Otherwise our intel leadership spending is too low to justify any other intel priority settings.

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Part III Land, Naval, Air OOB's, 24 weeks

1st January 1936 - 30th June 1936

1st January

Map of 1936 Japan



Germany began using diplomatic means to influence Japan towards the Axis.

3rd January



France had the Popular Front.

5th January

We were able to make legal changes.



Japan insitutes the three year draft.



10th January

Naval OOB overview, stars denote relative quality of fleets.



Two carrier fleets were formed with a long range composition, which excluded destroyers. Both fleets consist of two carriers and 6 light cruisers.

Two battleship fleets were then formed. The BB fleet * has eight ships, this will be used when we know there is a weak enemy fleet nearby and we wish to ensure that enemy ships are sunk. By having a lower hull value then the other fleet, we can ensure higher efficency.

The BB Fleet ** is the prime surface ship fleet with two battleships III and three battlecruisers II, two heavy cruiser III and escorts to bring it to 14 ships overall. This is the grand battle fleet with an OOB designed to be in the front line against the Americans or British.

Two transport fleets were formed from the lesser quality battleship I's. Both of these fleets are led by an ageing battleship and consist of heavy cruisers, destroyers and transports. These ships are simply shields for the armies that we will transport around. These fleets have 25 and 26 ships.

The submarines were formed into four groups with the two level I subs sent to Suwon in Korea. The better submarines are based to Taiwan.

16th January

Airforce OOB overview



7 CAGs are aboard the carrier fleets. These are based at Tokyo but will be sailing in the Gulf of Chihli, where Manchuko, Shanxi, Japan and nationalist China meet.

The rest of the airforce is based to Dalian, a Japanese enclave in the same sea.

These 7 CAGs have good air-to-air abilities, therefore in light of the supply shortage of fuel at Dalian, interceptors will not be based out of this airfield and will be rebased to Taiwan.

Two wings of four interceptors rebased to Taiwan.

This leaves 7 bomber squadrons at Dalian, one wing of two squadrons are naval bombers. All these planes will be used from Dalian to support offensives in China. In order to maintain tactical flexibility no wing may consist of more then two squadrons. We will be able to fly a total of 14 squadrons including cags, on ground attack missions with 7 having further flexibility for logistical strikes etc.

Where possible CAGs will fly off carriers to reduce fuel stress on overland supply routes.

9th March

Italy enforced conquer on Ethophia.

9th April

Army OOB overview



The military forces for usage in a Chinese war have been reorganised under Operation Lugou HQ, theatre command.

The Imperial Army I has three corps, two with triangular divisions and one with square divisions. The concept is that the triangular divisions will be used as supporting corps during offensives by the special forces. Their triangular structure will reduce the supply attrition of the battles and they are strong enough to cover the flanks of a major advance. The square corps will be responsible for manning an area of the front as infantry of the line and may be required to undertake offensives. When we are able to produce some additional artillery the 4inf divisions will be switched to 3inf+1art, but we have much more important production items queued at present.

The Mongolian Army consists of four divisions of triangular cavalry. These are not considered front line divisions but instead will partake in offensives and encirclements. They are reduced to triangular formations to reduce the scale of supply stress moving these units in for an offensive will cause.

To be ready for war seven corps will be considered the smallest starting force acceptable. Four new corps will need to be trained.

10th May

Infantry 1936 technologies researched.

Unlocked marine infantry is researched in addition to promoting 1938 infantry research to the top of the current agenda.

26th May

Agriculture advanced a level.

Artillery tech improves and is removed from research agenda for an interim period.

13th June



Three mountain divisions complete training and are formed into the newly incorporated SpecFor I Corps of the Imperial Army I. We are only able to produce three such divisions at any period due to CAG and naval base spending.

Officer % has fallen to 93. This is a cause for concern and officer leadership spending will have to be doubled from 1 to 2.

[Jagdpnzr]

I would like to wish you better luck on this attempt. I will be keeping a close eye on this one

[blackdown]

Good luck with this one.

I would like to wish you better luck on this attempt. I will be keeping a close eye on this one

Thanks guys

I hope to update to the war period in the next few days. If anyone wants to contribute any advice I'm always happy to listen, although I am normally one update ahead of what's posted. Aiming for smaller updates to try and keep progress clearer for the reader.

[blackdown]

Chapter II Assembling our might
Part I 36 weeks
1st July 1936 - 31st March 1937

29th July 1936

The naval base at Hamhung has improved to level 7.

21st August

A key aerial tech pathway is unlocked. In January we will be able to begin developing CAG range.



27th August

Pivotal infantry technologies complete.



Both are promoted back to the top of the research queue for further development.

5th September

Logistical wizards are promoted to the Theatre and Army Group level commands.

8th October



Ground attack tech completes. This is a great technology and in my eyes is perhaps one of most cost-efficent techs for a CAG airforce.

17th October

Governments will be governments...



The minister in question was chief of the navy, his chosen replacement was Yamamoto Isoroku.



18th November

A further three divisions complete training.

The Spector II Corps is now formed of one division and deploys to the Imperial Army.

A paltry 6 ICs is freed up which is invested in some strategic flexibility.



This will lead to +30 transports being available on top of the current quantity of 20, I don't see any reason to expand the convoy fleet beyond this size.

18th January 1937

Marine infantry research completes.

General staff reports that a division of marine infanty uses 3.2 supplies compared to 2.68 for mountain infantry, otherwise they will have similar combat ratings. In light of this it was decided to create a mixed specfor corps, with the minimal amount of marines necessary to allow for attacks into Qingdao and Shanghai and with mountain divisions compromising the rest of the force. Marine divisions are only needed for the direct attack into a port and not for landing on the surrounding beaches, so two divisions will be all that's necessary.



An additional three divisions of mountain soldiers were ordered.

28th January

The destroyer squadron is completed and deployed. No ships are currently under production.

3rd March

Infantry 1938 research completes.

Officer leadership spending is increased by a further point to 3 as infantry warfare techs are removed from the research agenda. They are replaced with two new technologies, small fuel tanks and single engine aircraft armaments to increase the range and ground damage of our CAGs.

For our industry, four new technologies were ordered for 1938 level of development. Oil, steel, coal and rare material production.



24th March

Advanced construction engineering completes. General staff considered the possibility of making a hamhung railway to reduce supply losses to the manchuko border our from our korean port. However, it will cost 6 ICs over 4 years to complete and it will terminate into 30% developed infanstructure in manchuko. This is a bad investment, even if it would improve practical knowledge. An extra carrier will improve our chances of overall victory more then reducing supply stoppages in China by a small amount. In post-war China infanstructure will not matter, so the investment in railways will be lost money once we are victorious. Infanstructure development path is terminated.

28th March

Spanish civil war starts.

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Part II 52 weeks

1st April 1937 - 31st March 1938

4th June



The present situation in the Spanish civil war.

1st July

Manufacturing the Marco Polo Bridge incident was suggested by local military commanders to the Japanese cabinet. Plans were ordered to be developed but not entacted until the perfect moment, Marco Polo Bridge event postphoned.

1st August



The first Marine Division completes training and forms the SpecFor III Corps of the Imperial II Army, North China Army Groups. This is now the 6th corps of infantry ready.

15th August

High command noticed a mystery as the date of completion for the CAGs kept increasing into the future despite full spending levels. They are now due two weeks later then previously, on november 3rd.

11th September

A mountain division completes training. SpecFor II Corps is now at full strength, nine more divisions required to meet minimum war standards.

18th September

All cavalry tech is now completed 1938 levels, leaving 1940 as possible research tech. We will not pursue this tech for the time being.

22nd September

The research agenda backlog is nearly completed. Therefore we pressed ahead with development of light cruiser tech to 1936 levels.



9th October

We began researching a pair of key, complementary technologies.



31st October



Mechanised offensive research completes, +10 org for cavalry. Because our cavalry forces extend to four divisions only this will probably represent the limit of current leadership spending on this unit type.

11th November

After further, poorly understood delays, the CAGs are ready for service.



We need another corps before war so more mountain divisions were ordered.

16th December

The new CAGs are ordered into 2 x 2 wings with 2 squadrons and a lone squadron.

23rd December

The last of the two marine divisions completes training and joins the specfor III corps at Dalian. They're based here so we can use the marines to storm a port in the opening moments of a war.

26th December

Special Forces increased to level 3. Tech to be upgraded another level immediately. Radar tech was also added, ancipicating its implementation with the fleet.

1st January 1938

Another mountain division completes training. Seven more till war. Operation Lugou HQ presently contains 346,000 soldiers. Airforce at Dalian reattached to the theatre HQ, intruigingly you cannot add CAGs to theatre commands.

7th Febuary

Another division completes training, judging from the flow of completed divisions we will open for war on June 1st 1938, this will leave two divisions unready in time and tech upgrades unimplemented, but the world waits for no one. These will have to be dealt with during war.

10th March

Ground attack efficency reaches +30% development, this amounts to a free 1.5 CAGs out of the 5 we developed, not an advance to be treated lightly.



News from Berlin.

15th March



News from Rome.

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Part III Operation Logou overview, 9 weeks

1st April 1938 - 2nd June 1938

5th April

Operation Logou HQ begins deploying its forces to the Chinese-Japanese border.

7th April



Tech level advances.

22nd April

Humhung naval base level advances. We are now supplied by a level 10 port. Excess ICs drained into upgrades.

8th May

The first division of the Specfor IV Corps completes training and deploys to the rear of the Operation Lugou forces.

1st June

Naval assets are now positioned for war along with the airforce and army. We're ready to begin offensive operations.

Operation Lugou overview



Map of Operation Lugou units. The northern flank is held by the GI II Corps TRI. These triangular divisions are tasked with simply holding their positions. They stretch as far as provinces with infanstructure, down to Beijing with one division of this corps held in reserve.

The GI III Corps SQR are stronger 4inf divisions based opposite Beijing, concentrated in two provinces. These forces have been allocated this region because of the initial strong counter thrust we expect from the nationalists in the Beijing area.

Also in these provinces are two specfor corps (II, I) and the Mongol army (4 divisions of triangular cavalry). Beijing will be the point of origin for two encircling movements.

The western movement will be led by the Mongol Army, this will seek to cut off the Shanxi border guards facing off the GI II Corps TRI, northwards.

The southern movement will be supported by two specfor corps, one at Beijing and the SpecFor III Corps at Dalian. The Beijing force will head one province south to Yongqing, at which point the Dalian force will land into the port of Dagu and the neighbouring province of Hunghua. The remaining specfor corps will be a reserve at Beijing.

Enough divisions are based at Dalian to surprise and eliminate enemy divisions garrisoned on the Shandong pensulia in addition to our Shanxi operations.

These initial movements will not create large pockets, perhaps 12 divisions will fall between them. However they do show the style of warfare that will be waged against the Chinese. The main risk for this opening gambit comes from the large numbers of transferring enemy units that will be marching to the frontlines as we cut the area off, this risk is the main motivation for having an elite reserve force at Beijing.

The airforce will be supporting with ground attacks along the paths of the encircling units and logistical bombing along the expected route of reinforcement for nationalist divisions and the provinces to the rear of the encircling manouvres.

June 2nd



Marco Polo Bridge incident.



Standard war legal changes.



Japanese economy at the outbreak of war.

The war economy at 133 ICs and much reduced consumer goods enabled the full backlog of upgrades to be implemented with some production excess.



This excess was allocated to four new CAGs, taking advantage of our practicals development.



The fleet carrier force of 3 CAGs were ordered to perform ground attacks into Beijing. The other CAGs are to save their organisation for the latter half of our encirclements. Two tactical bomber wings however are deployed on logistical strikes across the Shanxi/nationalist border. The third wing of one bomber began flying logistical missions at the gateway to the shandong pensulia.



The SpecFor II Corps marches towards Beijing. We are immediately counter-attacked at the Manchuko province of Jixian.



This is an attempt to prevent our assault into Beijing, however the ruse failed as the battle of Beijing has already begun.





Our logistical bombing force is intercepted over Hengshui on the nationalist border.

High command ordered a CAG wing of two squadrons from Dalian to begin intercepting enemy fighters along the area the tactical bombers are operating.

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Chapter III War, glorious war!
Part I 2 weeks

2nd June - 17th June

2nd June



Enemy movements east of the port of Dagu threatens to leave us grasping straws with the planned southern pocket. We respond by splitting our divisons facing the Dagu pocket region into binaries to reduce their effeftive attacking power. This is to lure the Chinese generals into believing that they are able to beat us in this region and encourage them to stay longer defending against our attack, as ultimately it will favour them.



Behind our delaying manovure, a marine and mountain division begin the amphibious attack into Dagu with a supporting mountain division heading into the province to the south of Dagu to prepare to link up with the Beijing offensive. The naval squadron at Dalian begins ground attacks to speed up our acquisition of Dagu.

Another transport fleet sets sail for Qingdao with the other marine division and various supporting mountain elements.



State of the various combats.



We are victorious in Dagu and Hunghua. Unfortunately the retreat pattern of the enemy forces are out of the pocket. We abandon the binary division attacks as the strength of the enemy divisions are so low we would of been victorious regardless of our efforts to lower our strength.

3rd June

The transport fleet arrives in the waters off Qingdao and the Marine division aboard launches an immediate attack into the port, 86% to victory. The mountain division aboard will disembark into the port itself to avoid any combat delay modifiers.

Four idle cags aboard the second carrier group are brought into the battle of Beijing alongside the naval bombers as time is running short to capture the city.

4th June

Two divisions were withdrawn from the Beijing offensive, lowering the attack to three divisions. This was to try and reduce stacking penalties.

An counter-attack into Tianjin was ordered to halt the Shanxi assault into Jianxian, which was reducing our effectiveness in Beijing.

6th June



Asian soldiers are not renowned to fighting to the last man.



The Chinese fleet flees, we lost none they lost none. The Japanese fleet is now free to dock into Qingdao.

7th June

One enemy division routed on low strength and organisation from the battle of Beijing. Two more to shortly follow.

8th June



12 enemy militia brigades will be trapped at the tip of the Shandong when our marines advance into Longkou.

More units are ordered to join the Beijing offensive, regardless of the stacking penalty to attempt to win by weight of numbers. Only two enemy divisions remain fighting.

9th June



Situation in the southern pocket. Shanxi troops are moving away from the planned northern pocket region, however nationalist troops might start arriving soon so if we delay the manovure with the mongolian army we might increase units eliminated.

The battle at Beijing.



11th June



We are victorious at Yongqing and 83% versus one remaining enemy division at Beijing. The net is fast closing, but the prize is a mere four divisions, including a HQ. We are victorious in the battle of Beijing!



The Shanxi defence of Beijing has cost us more then perhaps they realise. As we began eliminating the pocket, three CAG wings were rebased to Beijing. We will allow more enemy units to enter the northern pocket before we begin to form it.

The captured position from Dagu-Huanhua-Yongqing is superior to the old defensive line so we will keep this land.



Aiming to cause maximal damage to the reinforcing enemy divisions, ground attacks by 4 wings target a large concentration of enemy divisions.

Situation on Shandong.



12th June

Ground attacks at Lingshan.



14th June



We were attacked by the communists in forests of Yongqing. The success enjoyed by the communist offensive in this battle is due to our decision to prioritise unit production over pre-war upgrade spending. Reinforcements will be needed in a few days if we're to hold this position, although the province in question is not considered vital as it doesn't increase our defensive frontage if we're forced back one province.



The shandong pocket has been reduced to its last province, Pengali which we attack

17th June

Final fate of both pockets.

[Saithis]

I like the looks of this offensive a lot more already. Annihilating formations is the way to go for sure!

[Pj Fallon]

Wow you do really pound out the updates.

[sprites]

So Marco Polo is late ... we'll see how you teach the chinese!

[blackdown]

Part II 2 weeks

17th June

A welling of madness bubbled forth from Colonel Blackdown's subconcious as a new plan was hatched to cuckoo the enemy. For this, we will bring up our forces from the reserve armies (Mongol Army, SpecFor I Corps) presently located behind Beijing.



We began two minor offensives to support the planned movements of these corps and ground attack missions were changed to hit every province on their planned encirclement path. Every province has an air wing devoted to ground attacking, one of the nice benefits of our joint air-land approach to war in China.

The main flaw with the plan is that it is a plan that wont be finished for over a week, yet it is reliant on present enemy locations. However we view the stream of enemy reinforcements as gushing in new blood to the planned pocket and we expect this process to last substantially longer then a week.

Here is a map showing the path we plan to take.

The left wing has further to encircle, yet it should encounter weaker enemy forces. This has been given to the Mongol Army supported by 2-3 divisions of SpecFor II Corps. The Specfor I Corps will take the southern wing. It only traps four provinces, of which we expect many enemy divisions to evacuate, however an offensive action now will weaken the enemy forces enough to make further operations later substantially easier.



Battle of Cangzhou on the southern approach as a frontline division from our forces softens up the enemy in ancipication of the arrival of SpecFor I.

18th June

Enemy movements continue to flow into the path of the planned encirclement. We decided to go around rather then through them on the northern front as the planned path is adjusted slightly north. This also has the pleasant benefit of providing an easy encirclement for two enemy divisions north of Beijing if we can pull it off before they twig our plans.



At the battle of Changzhou a force intended to weaken the enemy has come near to routing the entire enemy garrison.



It's high time we left the Shandong. A transport fleet sets sail from Tokyo to collect our forces here as quartermasters got to work to ensure our equipment will be ready for rapid evacuation at the docks of Qingdao.



We are attacked at Xuanhua as part of the northern mini pocket. Decided to ignore this as we have two more divisions marching into the province, then we can launch a counteroffensive after the enemy have spent themselves.

19th June






At the battle of Yongqing, the defending mountain division is now -93% and nearly out of Org. The division was 2 hours from being reinforced when it is routed. This is ideal as it ensures the reinforcing division isn't routed as well.



20th June



Our pressure at Laiyuan will hopefully cause more enemy units to enter the pocket region as the intensity of warfare here is being kept at a steady boil.

21st June



The first province in the encirclement is captured by a supporting mountain division for the Mongol Army, which is then forced to defend.



Battle of Kalgan, if we are victorious here and can enter the province before the two enemy divisions north of Beijing can exit the rapidly closing pocket then we will be able to eliminate those brigades.

The communists rout a second Japanese division at Yongqing. Marines sent in to ensure the situation didn't spiral out of control.



The fleet is ordered into Qingdao to prepare for the embarking forces of the Shandong pocket. We should be finished here within 3 days.



Battle of Datong begins as the Mongolian Army charges through Tianzhen straight westwards at Datong.

24th June

Japanese forces have left the Shandong and are now sailing south to Shanghai.

25th June



The Mongol army has swept away enemy divisions ahead of its path.



Due to the slow progress of the north-beijing pocket a further opportunity has arisen for a doubling of enemy forces trapped in this region. One supporting division is withdrawn from the northern arm of the main pocket force and diverted northwest to help cut the enemy forces off. A close inspection of the battle of Kalgan revealed two enemy divisions close to routing, we immediately desist in the direct attack into this province to encourage the divisons to stay.

27th June



After arrival in Datong, the Mongol army is attacked and forced to defend again. If this continues then it will take us a long time to form the pocket at present rates.



The battle of Yongqing continues to rage in the background.

SpecFor I Corps arrives at its first objective.

Supply shortage modifiers are beginning to affect combats.

28th June





SpecFor I encounters similar problems to the Mongol Army, just as they are victorious in Datong.



We're able to close the North Beijing pocket, trapping five Shanxi divisions and sparking a big retaliation from the Chinese.



We are forced to retreat the HQ out of Tianzhen, a mountain division will soon arrive to hold the line and keep the pocket closed whilst we kill them with fire in between our lines.

29th June

State of play.

[Saithis]

China's giving a lot back, that's a ton of formations on the move. I look forward to see what you're going to do here.

[Pj Fallon]

Ah so your going with encircle and eliminate this time to relieve pressure on the line. Hopefully your forces hold until those shanxi troops are dead.