Blue Sky White Sun (Axis China 1940)

[zanaikin]

@Sumeragi - mountains and jungles =P

@Asalto - AI strategy is horrible when one uses something more creative than a linear push. Of course historically, Battle of France showed the allies to be just as bad xD

@whatguts - Sure, coming right up in next update.

[zanaikin]

Operation Compass - Part III

0000 October 1st:
Despite losing Calcutta, Raj forces have been steadily increasing in Burma. To support the drive toward Rangoon, General Zhang Zhizhong launched an attack against Raj positions threatening Falkenhausen's left flank in the mountaneous province of Taunggyi. Even with a 12:1 concentration of force, the defensive terrain allowed the enemy to hold on for 35hrs before withdrawing.
Retreating forces from Kengtung would cause the Taunggyi to become a battlefield several more times in the next few days, but none more than a day.

The 1st and 2nd Interdict Group, relocated to Lashio after its conquest, were now rebasing to Calcutta in the event that the UK does sent air force reinforcements, which is becoming increasingly unlikely as the number of good airports within the Raj shrinks...


2000 October 5th:
Admiral Chen Shaokuan, Chief of the virtually-nonexistent ROC Navy, cursed as he looked at the report. One of his convoys to Taiwan had been intercepted by a minor British raider force, and there was absolutely nothing he could do, except...
"...Yes, I want those two useless destroyers assigned to the convoy fleet! At least their presence might intimidate those raiders from attacking!"
And now he was truly an Admiral without a single warship to command.




1000 October 8th:
From: General Alexander von Falkenhausen, 2nd Army HQ
To: Director-General Chiang Kai-Shek, 1st Army HQ
Message: On the morning of October 8th, 2nd Army vanguard have secured control of the Burmese port of Rangoon. Primary objectives on the Eastern front have been achieved. 2nd Army motor corps will proceed to drive westward along the Burma coast to cut off British supply routes. 10th Army under Lt.Gen Wang have been redeployed to hold Rangoon, estimated arrival October 12th. 9 other divisions of the 2nd Army, under the command of General Zhang Zhizhong, will be redeployed towards the center as soon as able.




0000 October 14th:
The Army Tactical Modernization team lead by Wu Peifu reports that they have finished the adaptation of Pre-Planning Defense to the KMT's operational methods. Manuals and training staff are being sent to forces in the field even now.

His team was delighted to hear that they have another assignment, but was horrified to hear what it was: Experimental Rocket Engine. German assistance in the form of blueprints were received weeks ago, but as nobody in China has any idea where to start about rocketry and this team was one of the best overall, central leadership thought they might as well try bashing their head against it.

Of the 6 divisions that had been redeployed from Hong Kong a month ago, General Xue Yue on the western front sent 4 of them back into the center. They have just arrived in Raipur, and Generalissimo Chiang sent word for them to fan out and expand the narrow front of advance... hopefully pushing out before more redeploying Raj divisions could arrive.

Personally though, Chiang believes that most of the Raj's forces had redeployed to Burma too quickly... and were now trapped there.



0500 October 14th:
Two days ago and without orders, Lt.Gen Feng Anbang began an attack on the coastal province of Kharagpur to disrupt enemy forces assembling in the area. A report had finally arrived heralding his victory, one of several that took place over the past week as commanders on the field actively assaulted congregating Raj forces before the enemy could act and attempt to disrupt the Central Army's thin lines of advance. Chiang decided it was time to send a message back to the various generals in praise of their initiative as well as "quick thinking and adaptation to the new operational methods".




0000 October 15th:
News shocked the world as the British attacked the fleet of their formal French allies at Mers-el-Kebir. KMT Minister of Security Dai Li immediately saw the opportunity and sent orders to begin drafting new propaganda against the British.




1000 October 16th:
Admiral Chen was in a particularly foul mood today. It appears that British raiders were not intimidated by the ancient tubs the KMT once considered destroyers and cruisers; instead they increased the intensity of their attacks.

After reading the reports in detail, he realized that the Quartermaster's office in Shanghai were sending the minimum number of convoys (and escorts) 'neccessary', he decided to take a hand-on approach regarding the scheduling of convoys and make sure they use all the escorts.



0000 October 17th:
The General Armament Department reports their successful development of Basic Field Artillery (1940). Under renewed pressure from the naval branch, Guangzhou shipyard was allocated the resources to begin research on a slightly less outdated destroyer model (1916). At least, there were now German blueprints for them.



0800 October 18th:
6 divisions under the command of Lt.Gen Zhang Xueliang had finally taken the Nepal capital of Kathmandu. The foreign office decided it was now time to announce the abolishment of both tribal states. They didn't even bother to integrate the research teams of these nations due to their backwardness in all things modern.




0400 October 20th:
The 3rd Korean Corps sent to occupy Putao found itself under attack from 4 British Raj divisions. General Falkenhausen ordered them to withdraw to Luxi as Putao held no strategic value whatsoever and was certainly not worth the lives of Korean soldiers. The Raj can spend the next few weeks trekking into a completely inconsequential piece of territory.
Such events would occur a few more times, leaving the KMT wondering just how strategically incompetent the British India command really is...




1500 October 21st:
From: Lt. General Liu Ruming, 3rd Cavalry
To: Director-General Chiang Kai-Shek, 1st Army HQ
Message: Today our forces have secured the westernmost Indian port of Karachi. Primary objective in the west achieved.

Chiang grinned as he read the message. While the 1st month was full of unforeseen disruptions, Raj defenses seemed to have collapsed like a house of cards in the 2nd month, and still there was no sign of any British forces interested in assisting the Indians, not even aircraft. Perhaps British morale in India really did hit rock bottom as a result of this offensive and now they weren't even going to bother tossing good troops after a lost cause.



1800 October 30th:
Leading the northern wing of the central advance, the 6th Cavalry Corps under General Zhang Fakui have reached Nasik. Before them were the gates of Bombay, undefended and in complete chaos as panicking civilians sought to board whatever ships they can get on and evacuate... Zhang ordered his troops to advance into the city without delay, but refrain from any violence unless challenged.




1300 November 3rd:
Whether the Raj made an attempt to reinforce their last major city or not, one may never know. But as the 6th Cavalry Corps entered Bombay's city center and took control of both the colonial administration and the port before reinforcements could arrive, it was the last crushing blow to the morale of the British Raj. Before the day's end, General Zhang Fakui would accept the complete and unconditionally surrender of the British Raj, putting an end to Operation Compass after a mere 2 months and 2 days.



Army Chief and Armaments Minister Bai Chongxi requested to be flown to Bombay as the first opportunity. He could not wait to see just what kind of technical expertise they will soon gain this time...

The new naval, aircraft, and academia teams shows the most promise.





Aftermath
0800 November 4th, British East India HQ Building, Bombay:

Director-General Chiang sat down on the ornate chair at the head of the table in the huge conference room. The KMT Central Army had taken over the headquarters of the once powerful British East India Company and later that of the Bombay Presidency as their temporary 'India Command'. Not wanting to present the image that the Chinese were simply replacing the British, Chiang insisted that the civil administration retain the larger half of the building, including all the higher floor offices, and that the Chinese vacate as soon as more appropriate accomodations were available.

"Good morning, gentlemen. I hope everyone is enjoying their stay in Bombay. I would like to thank everyone for their efforts during the past two months. Our swift victory over the British Raj in Operation Compass has brought honor and prestige to the KMT Central Army and China itself, and it was only possible through the efforts of our brave officers and men, as well as the ministers and staff who took upon the extra workload to back up our war efforts."

Chiang nodded at von Falkenhausen, attending today not as a General but as the Reich's Special Envoy to the Far East, with his pristine new Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves decorating his Wehrmacht uniform: "The Fuhrer wishes to congratulate the leaders and men of the KMT Central Army for their swift and decisive victory over the Raj. It is an honor and blessing to Germany to have such capable allies and, as part of our appreciation and intent to show the world that the Axis stands united, we wish to present the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross to eleven generals of the Central Army whose actions were instrumental to the rapid success of the campaign."

"The awards ceremony will be held this afternoon," announced Chiang, "but in the meantime, General Falkenhausen and Chief Bai has many updates on the strategic situation which we must examine. Bai, take it away."

"Of course Director, and good morning everyone. The series of decisive victories this year, both military and diplomatic, has greatly enhanced the power of the Axis alliance. In Europe, the German-Hungarian military alliance was joined by Norway when those Imperialistic British revealed their true colors, followed by the second and fourth Tripartite Pact signatories Italy and Yugoslavia after the fall of France. Petain's Vichy France administration may have refused to join the war on the winning side, but with their inability to quelm partisan uprisings on their own lands, it is arguable that the Axis is better off without them."


"At the moment the UK remains the only allied power in Europe, although the Greeks appear to lean in that direction as well. Republican Spain is another nation to watch due to their particularly low relation with Germany."
"The Battle for Britain continues as Luftwaffe and RAF elements fight over the English Channel, which may explain the complete lack of RAF reinforcements to the Raj during Operation Compass."



"The only active ground combat front in the west lay in North Africa, where the Italians and the British continue to fight a back-and-forth battle over the borders of Libya and Egypt."



"In Asia, we became the third signatory of the Tripatite Pact and joined the Axis alliance with our Korean brethren. With the success of Operation Compass, we now control all of the Raj territories of Pakistan, India, and Burma regions. Troops are being redeployed even as we speak to accept the surrender of Raj forces and reinforce the vulnerable coastal provinces. It is our intention to return local autonomy to India as soon as possible, but only once their administrative staff are sufficiently prepared with our aid."

"The following is a comparison of the ground, air, and naval forces with the Axis alliance."





"The KMT Central Army stands as the largest concentration of ground forces within the Axis, followed closely by Germany. However nearly 1/5th of our forces are still badly out of date and must be brought up to modern standards as soon as possible. Our mobile forces are greater than that of the Wehrmacht, and although of lesser quality ours remain more adapted to the rough terrain of Asia."

General Xue Yue was puzzled at the statistics: "I was under the impression that it was Wehrmacht's armored forces that were instrumental to the blitzkreig advance across France? Yet Germany have no divisions officially listed as armored?"

"No, only armored elements attached to motorized divisions," Falkenhausen answered with a hint of exasperation. "The mobility advocates within the Wehrmacht generalship continue to lobby for the creation of primarily Panzer divisions, but... I'm not sure those in armaments are listening, and the Fuhrer refuses to take a stand."

"In air forces," Bai Chongxi continued, "we hold the second largest in the alliance, although short by a far margin --- the German air force is over six times that of our own. Germany and Italy also retains the two largest navies, with Germany focusing almost exclusively on submarines and Italy striking a more balanced surface action fleet."


"Despite being far smaller than the British Royal Navy, German submarine warfare and Italian naval action have sunk a sizeable chunk of the Royal Navy with few losses in return. But..." Chief of Staff gestured towards Minister of Intelligence He Yaozu.

"According to our limited intelligence (level 12), which we intend to expand upon immediately using funds we have captured from the Raj colonial government, the Germans are still far from even posing a threat to depleting the British navy or merchant marine. The comparison of air forces however, would make it likely that Germany is winning the current Battle of Britain."



"Our borders with the Soviet Union remains empty, so they remain of little threat to us at the moment despite the tremendous size of their army and air forces."



"The Japanese appear to have rebuilt their army after their total destruction in the Manchurian campaign. However, as we do not yet see a declaration of war from their Democratic government, this may not be of any concern."



"The United States continue to maintain good relations with us in spite of our declaration against the UK. We believe part of the cause to be our complete lack of naval strength and thus poses no threat to their Pacific hegemony."



"Thank you, Minister," said Director-General Chiang as he brought the first part of this meeting to a conclusion: "our hosts inform me that a state breakfast has been prepared. As such, we will take a break before reconvening to discuss strategic plans for the next step."


Notes:

• I'm actually not sure what's the next target yet... I originally planned to take 4-6 months for Operation Compass... gave the strategy AI too much credit. Siam->Malaysia? Iran->Iraq->Egypt? or just consolidate and build up since DOW dissent hurts.
• I was surprised that the UK never bothered to help. I always thought the AI was capable of dealing with the event that Japan might take China and attack India...
• Post-campaign examination of hostile forces: 13 Raj infantry divisions, 5 Raj cavalry divisions, 2 Nepal infantry divisions, 2 Bhutan infantry divisions. That's a 84:22, almost 4/1 ratio between KMT:Indian forces. They did hold a considerable advantage in terrain but, without UK support defeat was unpreventable.

[Asalto]

Great, Raj is down and British Empire lost its crown jewel...

[zanaikin]

(@Asalto - too easily =\)
(I was really surprised by the British AI's failure to reinforce the Raj, so I did some poking around, older save loading, and nofog examinations...)

To: KMT Central Army High Command
From: Minister of Intelligence, He Yaozu
Title: A Post-Action Analysis of British Actions During Operation Compass

Prior to the invasion of the British Raj, codenamed Operation Compass, it was anticipated that due to the importance of Britain's largest colony, the United Kingdoms will reinforce the Raj at the earlier opportunity, with air forces from the mainland as well as ground forces from both their Middle-East Theater and closer Dominions such as Canada and Australia. Yet, throughout the entire timespan of Operation Compass, from September 1st to November 3rd, not a single British or Dominion ground division or air wing was encountered.

After careful examination of dated military statistics provided by our intelligence operatives, we have determined the following likely causes:

1. On September 1st, merely days after Italy joined the war, Allied forces in Egypt totaled 16divs: 9divs on the Egypt-Libya border, 2divs on the Egypt-Ethiopia border, and 5divs in the Alexandria-Suez region. These forces were far outnumbered by the 27 Italian divisions on the Egypt-Libya border alone. By November 3rd, British troops managed to hold the front line at the borders only by reinforcing the Egypt-Libya region with 10 additional divisions, which was achieved with the considerable loss of 13 transport flotillas and onboard troops to the Italian Navy. Despite the size of the Royal Navy, the pressure brought on by Germany's mass production of submarines forced Britain to keep its best ships at the home islands. As a result, the lone cruiser fleet assigned to the Mediterrean found itself completely outclassed by the Italian navy.

2. Germany's emphasis on the Luftwaffe allowed them to field a total of 42 Interceptor wings by November 1940. Meanwhile, the United Kingdoms managed only 21 Fighter/Interceptor wings, with another 5 wings contributed by its allies (4 Canadian, 1 Australia). The 42:26 ratio lead to numerous German victories during the Battle for Britain, allowing German bombers to badly damage Britain's forward airfields (5.98/10 in Norwich, 5.18/10 in Dover, 8.01/10 in Portsmouth). This pressure forced the RAF to retain its full strength in the home islands. Not only the British Raj, but even British forces in Egypt, were forced to fight without any air support.

3. Due to the greater perceived threat of Italy, Britain prioritized reinforcements not only to Egypt, but also to those invading Ethiopia, increasing from 2 to 10 divisions during the two months. Records of two transport fleets, with at least 7 transport flotillas, were found approaching the Indian coast with 2 British divisions. Another 9 divisions were also assembled on the Arabian peninsula, presumably for simultaneous redeployment towards India. However, British Raj would fall before either group could arrive.

4. All spare Canadian and Australian forces had been deployed to Britain during the onset of war, save for those divisions necessary to defend their home shores. As such, despite their home countries' closer proximity to India, their expeditionary forces faced no less distance problems than the British.

Conclusion: It is not the neglect of the British, but the timely offensive in terms of global situation, as well as the rapid advance enabled by General Xue Yue's Chaos Battle doctrine, that kept any British or Dominion reinforcement from hampering Operation Compass. Although indirectly, the German Kriegsmarine submarine fleet, the German Luftwaffe air fleet, and the Italian Regia Marina forces all contributed to our success. In the future, we should strive to coordinate our offensives with those of our allies at all times.

[gooy]

nice victory
when do you plan to release india? china with an indian puppet will have such massive manpower which even the soviets can't oppose
now i would go for siam and malaya in order to protect against a possibility of allied landings there. the persian border is quite short and should be easy to maintain for now. the most important objective for the near future should be siberia, but you have to wait for the germans to launch barbarossa. BTW with such air superiority is it possible for the german AI to try operation sealion?

[zanaikin]

@gooy - Honestly, I would release immediately if it weren't for the dissent hit. Manpower is a resource China has plenty of, but India actually has some decent industries that would be far more efficient released from occupation, not to mention they have enough IC to afford good tech teams and thus keep up or even help out in the tech race (China's tech is utterly atrocious). Current plan is to release them once I have the entire chinese army upgraded (hopefully in time for Barbarossa). Because of how much ICdays it costs to get rid of dissent I'm trying to avoid another hit prior to Barbarossa but... I may have to get rid of the Singapore naval base by cutting thru Siam. Mmmh.
In my experience naval superiority is needed, rather than air superiority, to carry out Sealion in this game; plus the German AI isn't very geared towards it =\ Shame.


-------- * * * --------


In hindsight I should have waited a week before starting this setup, except of course back then I didn't realize 1.03 was going to be out so soon. Now, with the release of 1.03 patch (which is savegame noncompatible too =\) I have 3 options:
1. Continue with 1.02 as usual.
2. Restart the game, then restart AAR in 1940.
3. Retrace all events of the AAR as close as possible (forcing other nations' decisions where needed), then just continue on after the fall of Raj, with an update noting differences both in campaign and world. Chances are I can probably manage this with only minor diff in divisions/IC. Getting Germany to redo their focus on air/subs instead of army might be hard...

What do you all think?

[Serpent]

I would invade Indochina as well as Siam and Malaysia before turning west towards Persia and preparing for war with the Soviets. Declaring war against Vichy would gain you some resources and ICs at the cost of a longer coastline to defend, but more importantly would strengthen Germany with a considerable influx of manpower, resources and IC. It may put some strain on the Italians in Libya, but that front doesn't really matter anymore with Asia in Chinese hands. And if you intend to keep direct control over your South-east Asian conquests (tiny puppets are pretty useless) it would look a lot better on the map if you include Indochina.

edit:
You've already played since 1933, most of the game is behind you. I wouldn't bother restarting, unless you feel it would be fun for you.

[gooy]

play it as it is in 1.02!

keep a decent force on the persian border and attack them as soon as they're forced into the allies and try to grab baku before the germans do
also soviet central asia should be top priority. it has more industry than eastern siberia and the AI won't probably even defend it because it is an unusual attack direction.

[Asalto]

It's alright to continue in 1.02.

[Dofon]

I've always been intrigued by the idea of close Sino-German cooperation during WW2. Enjoying the AAR.
Have you considered adding events to ally/puppet the Southeast asian countries? If Japan could coerce France for Indochina and get Siam on their side, I don't see why a rising, victorious China would have any issue doing the same.
Also, I think sticking to 1.02 would be best.

[zanaikin]

Thanks for the feedback folks~

@Serpent - How would letting Germany take out France grant them much manpower? I thought mobilization was only affected by manpower in national provinces? But other than that, ummmm, does feel bit like cheating the game system xD
Actually 1933-1940 was, surprisingly short. I played almost all of it on extremely fast setting since most of the time was spent just moving troops around / IC building.

@gooy - March thru Sinkiang takes months though. DH really protected the Soviet center well (compared to HOI2) with Sinkiang as a puppet.
I've actually never seen the Germans reach Baku in any game =x

@Dofon - Glad you like it. I considered the events, but at the same time making any more events just to fit specific needs here feels bit like, cheating? Well, Indochina+Siam does feel reasonable. Will look into it.


Status update: so things are at bit of a pause while I'm examining 1.03. Still undecided, but I've found some reasons that lean towards switching over:
1. Nat.China is weaker at start (DoW required vs commies, bad ministers take longer before more opts avail). Especially Yan Xishan's armament minister penalties makes IC building harder for China. The industrialization speed was a little too absurd here. Also, China starting tech is even worse than before (although with somewhat better teams), and with major powers' up to 7 tech slots there'll be even more catching up to do. Since I'm trying to do some alternate history simulation, bit more realism is a good thing =)
2. Stronger UK puppets so they stop folding so easily. British Raj starts with 45divs and (even) Nepal with 7divs...
3. Casualties reports/tracker and equipment trackers are awesome for AARs ^o^
4. With a German AI capable of building reactors, German-American nuke race. Germany also actually builds TANKS this time.
5. Japan/Manchukuo is more powerful, so things start get interesting early instead of 1937's 2nd Sino-Japanese War being a cakewalk.

Biggest con is that the new land combat/doctrine system is confusing me...

[Serpent]

Thanks for the feedback folks~

@Serpent - How would letting Germany take out France grant them much manpower? I thought mobilization was only affected by manpower in national provinces? But other than that, ummmm, does feel bit like cheating the game system xD
Actually 1933-1940 was, surprisingly short. I played almost all of it on extremely fast setting since most of the time was spent just moving troops around / IC building.

I assumed you still gained non-national manpower, but at a reduced rate modified by ministers. The security minister Man of the People, iIrc, provides a bonus to non-national manpower. And some ministers give penalties so I'd assume there should be a basic gain without minister modifiers or those ministers would be a lot less bad. Darkest Hour seems to be generally more rewarding of taking non-national land than the other HoI-games, but that's just my impression.
It would be gaming the system somewhat, but China has been interested in Vietnam since the Han dynasty so it's not at all unreasonable. Conquering India trough the Himalayas is really a lot more gamey, but since the game makes those province-borders passable why bother pushing all the way from Burma?

I'd like to see the new patch in action, so if you upgrade I would enjoy your aar even more.

[Limith]

Thanks for the feedback folks~

@Serpent - How would letting Germany take out France grant them much manpower? I thought mobilization was only affected by manpower in national provinces? But other than that, ummmm, does feel bit like cheating the game system xD
Actually 1933-1940 was, surprisingly short. I played almost all of it on extremely fast setting since most of the time was spent just moving troops around / IC building.

@gooy - March thru Sinkiang takes months though. DH really protected the Soviet center well (compared to HOI2) with Sinkiang as a puppet.
I've actually never seen the Germans reach Baku in any game =x

@Dofon - Glad you like it. I considered the events, but at the same time making any more events just to fit specific needs here feels bit like, cheating? Well, Indochina+Siam does feel reasonable. Will look into it.


Status update: so things are at bit of a pause while I'm examining 1.03. Still undecided, but I've found some reasons that lean towards switching over:
1. Nat.China is weaker at start (DoW required vs commies, bad ministers take longer before more opts avail). Especially Yan Xishan's armament minister penalties makes IC building harder for China. The industrialization speed was a little too absurd here. Also, China starting tech is even worse than before (although with somewhat better teams), and with major powers' up to 7 tech slots there'll be even more catching up to do. Since I'm trying to do some alternate history simulation, bit more realism is a good thing =)
2. Stronger UK puppets so they stop folding so easily. British Raj starts with 45divs and (even) Nepal with 7divs...
3. Casualties reports/tracker and equipment trackers are awesome for AARs ^o^
4. With a German AI capable of building reactors, German-American nuke race. Germany also actually builds TANKS this time.
5. Japan/Manchukuo is more powerful, so things start get interesting early instead of 1937's 2nd Sino-Japanese War being a cakewalk.

Biggest con is that the new land combat/doctrine system is confusing me...

It's better to research mobility or light infantry (or even firepower/defense) doctrine prior to 1940 due to higher effective GDE/Morale. Manpower doctrine is really strong late game (arguably the best if documentation is correct), but it is very weak early game. I normally abandon Mobility doctrine around 1941 after the Japanese have been defeated and catch up on Manpower doctrine.

[zanaikin]

@Serpent - non-national manpower contribute to daily manpower increases but... I once experimented with liberation/mobilization to notice that it doesn't seem to affect mobilized manpower.
Oh taking Viet is totally within Chinese aims ^^; just the French part feels gamey. I'll try my hand at event-modding to solve this.

@Limith - that so?... I realized that Soviets receive ridiculous cuts on production time for land units. But their GDE is pretty bad even till late game (max 80GDE, whereas Light Infantry can reach its max of 100GDE in 1942, while Mobility/Firepower both max out at 120GDE.)


EDIT: okay, I'm converting, 1.03 is just too enticing~
Made a new thread; easier to just start anew instead of cleaning this up. So everything in there from here forth:
http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/...-China-1933%29