Chapter I: Introduction
“How are we to liberate all of China with just 15 divisions? And why on earth is Chen Yi our superior commander? Isn’t that supposed to be my place!?”
All in due time, Mao. We don’t want you to bother with military things; you’re primarily a politician - the People’s Republic of China head of state!
Note that I’ve converted all my garrison divisions into militia ones as they should be. Unfortunately for the AI, it tends to get overextended with militias and lets them get destroyed easily. This is one of the few changes I made to this game – along with a lot more changes made by Sqwerlpunk!
Now, onto the diplomacy screen!
If you don’t know what’s going on at all, you can fire the Introduction event and check out the basic differences between vanilla and HPP. There’s usually a short country-specific description as well. Don’t worry; this decision will stop bothering you after five days of game. We also have the ability to end our guarantees of independence, but I shall leave it as it is for now.
I’ve skipped the production screen, since filled only by 5 triangular militia divisions. Why militias? Because militias and garrisons need only 30 officers per brigade as opposed 100 for infantry, which gives us a huge leadership spare in return! Let’s head onto technology screen.
Whoa, that’s a lot of new stuff going on in here!
First off, I’ve started researching “Education”, as it gives 0.5 leadership per level which is not bad at all, assuming the next level is for year 1910 anyway. Our troops have seen and shall see a lot of combat, understanding the basics of the Great War will be easy and quick.
As you can see, China (both communists and nationalists) has pre-selected “Human Wave” type of doctrines, as it will never worry about running out of manpower. You can choose only one doctrine in each given year, so pick wisely!
Espionage screen is almost not worth bothering with, at least not until you get your hands on some decent leadership values. I’ve actually switched my focus from officers to espionage, just to get 10 spies in my country. Kill off any foreign spies and carry on with boosting your national unity; it will be needed!
With that sorted out, let’s start the game slowly now.
I waste no time and start attacking Republic’s forces right away. Suddenly, two events pop out – one is telling me about some GOD country that will do some maintenance here and there over time and the second one is about Great Depression in the USA. Neither of these bothers me though – one is working as intended and nobody cares about America here in the Chinese heartland!
What’s more important is that the “Setup” event let me enact better laws and made some decisions available!
Unfortunately, I cannot switch to “Standing Army” from my current “Drafted Army”. We can afford to be picky about our recruits, especially with this kind of manpower base!
As you can see, a great influx of people is coming over from all various parts of China to fight for the communist faction.
Hovering over our country’s flag gives us some useful information. Education granted by strategic effect, detailed tax system granted by better education levels, low national unity making our units less organized... And that’s about it.
Now, with the starting phase finally behind us, let’s head to some action!
Battle of Hancheng lasts merely 36 hours and it’s our first out of many awaiting victories!
With Hancheng secured a few days later, we gain another axis of attack on Tongchuan. Please note a difference of battlefield’s width between vanilla and HPP!
After securing Hancheng, Xi’an, the first bigger population center, is assaulted.
Despite this vexing obstacle, which a river crossing during battle definitely is, the sheer power of numbers quickly deals with a much smaller defensive force and Xi’an is taken with minimal loses.
As three militia divisions are en-route to Xi’an over the Wei River, five militia divisions have just finished their hasty training and assemble in Ya’nan.
It’s time to advance into Ma Clique’s territory. The first to take is the mountain bastion in Xianyang.
Badly outnumbered and outclassed in equipment, Ma’s forces were forced to retreat.
Although not all battles were as easy. Especially when Republicans fielded one of their rare armored infantry support formations.
Chinese were dislodged after a tough fight and some reinforcements from Xi’an.
Further advances into Ma’s territory were made. With the capture of Xifeng, Yinchuan, the capital town of the Ma Clique was under direct danger.
Pinglian was also one of the important cities in Ma Clique, yet very well defended, with the initial odds even being in favor of the enemies.
A week later, Pinglian proved to be the bloodiest battlefield so far, as over 1 400 Chinese combined had fallen.
Alright, these were the first 48 days of my War of Liberation. Stay tuned!
