On August 23, the SEF, led by Iwane Matsui, landed in Liuhe, Wusong (吳淞), and Chuanshakou. Chiang Kai-shek had expected these coastal towns to be vulnerable to Japanese landings and ordered Chen Cheng to reinforce the area with the 18th Army. However, the Chinese were no match for Japanese firepower. The Japanese almost always began their amphibious assaults with heavy naval and air bombardment of the Chinese coastal defense works and trenches. It was not unheard of for the Chinese to lose an entire garrison to such bombardments. However, the Chinese would reinforce almost immediately to counter the Japanese troops who had just made their landing after the bombardment.
In the two weeks that followed, the Chinese and Japanese troops fought bitter battles in the numerous towns and villages along the coast. The Chinese troops fending off the amphibious assaults had only their small-caliber weapons to depend on, and were not sufficiently supported by the ROCAF and the almost nonexistent Chinese navy. They paid heavily for the defense. An entire regiment could be reduced to just a few men in action.
Attacker: Japanese (Elements of 3rd Infantry Division, Shanghai Expeditionary Force)
Defender: Chinese (Elements of 18th Army)
7 turns
Players: 2 OBA: None Night: No
Unit Counts:
Squads: A:16.0 D:17.0
AFVs: A:0
AFVs: D:0
Guns: A:0
Type 89 Heavy Grenade-Launcher x 3
D:0
Mortaio da 45 Brixia x 2
Misc Rules:
PTO, LJ (Exc: Huts are Buildings) All buildings wooden. Banzai NA Turn 1.
Went to last Japanese turn where they ended up with five bldgs.
2023-12-29
(D) Rob Schmitt
vs
Scott Martin
Japanese win
I was Chinese defender vs Japanese attacker. VP was for Japanese player to capture greater or equal to 10 buildings. Infantry only game. Japanese advanced across the entire front. I was able to defend well on my left flank and inflict many causalities. These units held out to the final game turn 7. My defense on the right was not able to slow him down enough to stop him short of the final victory buildings in the center. My turn 4 reinforcements did reach a couple of the center buildings but he had already grabbed the others. My mortars both broke quickly and were never effective. My DMed squads were not able to fall back and rally due to efficient Japanese encirclement movements. Close game that came down to just a few melee rolls on the final turn.
2023-07-02
(D) Jobbo Fett
vs
RootinPutin
Japanese win
W10 is a stream hex.
A third party brought up the fact that W10, as seen in VASL, isn't a stream hex. Since this was brought up at the start of the game and we could not find a rules reference otherwise, we played it as open ground. The amount of movement this gave the Japanese allowed them to immediately set up a foothold on the near side of the water and in front of my concealed defenders. Sadly, the close combats were anything but, and by the end of the 2nd Japanese turn things looked decided. We played it out for another two game turns until I threw in the towel - the Chinese mortars never managed to fire more than one shot each, my machine gun never got rate, and the attrition-style game I was hoping to play didn't pan out. Afterwards, we both agreed that W10 should've been a stream hex. (Because of the VASL board, we couldn't even truly determine what the true nature of that hex would've been otherwise so we deemed it Open Ground to get on with playing.)
2022-11-11
(A) Will Willow
vs
Arlen Vanek
Chinese win
NTSO 2022
2022-06-08
(A) walter mcwilliams
vs
Tom Kearney
Chinese win
2022-02-18
(D) Paul Legg
vs
Jeff Wright
Japanese win
A tight game, My Chinese kept the Japanese at bay for a couple of turns allowing the turn 4 reinforcements to get to the village just before the Japanese arrived. My forces withdrew at just the right time to avoid most of the initial banzai crossing the stream. Equipment failure and a poor performance under fire in the def fire phase in the Chinese turn 6 might the final turn hard.
2021-02-09
(D) Bob Schaaf
vs
Wayne Saunders
Japanese win
Really fun scenario. First jump back into the PTO in a long time. Chinese right held well, but the main IJA push on the gave the GMD defenders on that flank a right beating. Brief bright spot when the Chinese Sniper striped a squad and almost immediately after eliminated the IJA 9-0 leader. Threw in the towel when two squads fell in separate close combats without taking out any IJA units, and much of the defense on that flank was cowering in the jungle.
2020-09-07
(A) David Garvin
vs
Kedge
Japanese win
2019-10-13
(D) Steve Buckley
vs
Greg Barsness
Chinese win
I tried to sacrifice squads here and there to delay how fast Greg's IJA took the front 6 buildings and the Level 2 hill. This barely gave my reinforcements time to get to the back 6 buildings. Greg had some great ROF with those #$%^ knee mortars (they have WF even in '37); but that was balanced out by a few 12's rolled on MC's of his 447's and some of my low DFF rolls that bypassed his striping. Game was decided on the last turn CC when my Chinese Dare Death squad lead a leader and 2 other squads to retake Greg's 10th building, denying him the win.
2017-08-21
(A) Lawrence Spangler
vs
Diane Spangler
Chinese win
2017-07-28
(A) Dan Best
vs
Richard Burton
Chinese win
St. Louis ASL Tournament 2017.
2017-07-28
(D) Kermit Mullins
vs
Rob Wirthlin
Japanese win
STL Tournament. My Chinese held for three turns then crumbled and that was that.
2017-05-29
(A) Dave Mareske
vs
Dan Best
Chinese win
Tough slow advance with the Japanese winning very few CCs.
2017-05-29
(D) Dan Best
vs
Dave Mareske
Chinese win
2016-09-24
(A) Jeff Waldon
vs
Frank Tozier
Japanese win
VASL - A steady Japanese advance with plenty of hand to hand fighting, but no banzai, cleared the Chinese from the victory buildings and blocked the reinforcements. A last turn Chinese counterattack was brave yet fruitless.
2016-07-23
(D) Simon Staniforth
vs
Japanese win
2016-03-11
(D) Simon Staniforth
vs
Chinese win
2015-01-24
(D) Rich Weiley
vs
Malcolm Cameron
Chinese win
CANCON 2015 - Round two
2015-01-23
(D) Bill Brodie
vs
Aaron Cleavan
Japanese win
Cancon 2015. Played Aaron, who is a former Grofas. He used banzai very effectively, but I was hanging on. I had my share of luck, killing two Japanese leaders on the first turn, but roll seven (7!!) boxcars on morale rolls. Still, I was in the game on the last turn, and finally got my first snake eyes on morale check. Yay, battle harden, hero, even berserk would make it hard for him to win. The result: surrender!
2014-12-10
(D) fabrizio da pra
vs
Paolo Cariolato
Chinese win
I enjoyed this scenario, Paolo lauched one Banzai after the other and gained ground but lost too many squad in the process, turn two saw two banzai charges the one in the jungle pitted 5 squad on both side in combat but i rolled so low as the chinese that at the end of turn 3 on this side there was only one squad left of the original 5.
On the other side of the map he was able to get to the houses thanks to smoke, one of my squad that broke under WP and particularly because two of my MG positioned to place fire lanes cowered rolling two snakes in a row (he was coming at me in smoke so the roll was useless)
In the end the losses were too high for him, even when he got in HtH with my squads I was always able to at least CR his squads.
My reinforcements got on the map unopposed and were in perfect shape to defend the second group of houses while the Japanese had melted away.
2014-12-10
(A) Paolo Cariolato
vs
Fabrizio Da Pra
Chinese win
2014-07-25
(A) Michael Rodgers
vs
John Richards
Chinese win
I had the Japanese. I chose the focus my attack on the Japanese right. This turned out to be a mistake; it took too long. As well, around Chinese turn 5, his dice got hot and mine got cold. I conceded when it seemed like I could not win.
2013-06-08
(A) Steve Bowen
vs
TB
Japanese win
Playing as the Japanese I must have launched 8 or 9 Banzai attacks. It only worked because my opponent was too spread out and not really thinking about Banzai defense. Well balanced scenario that needs an experienced Chinese defender.
2013-05-24
(D) Richard Jenulis
vs
Bill Owen
Chinese win
Enfilade 2013
2013-03-26
(A) Richard Carter
vs
Chris Doary
Chinese win
I had some good luck throughout, and some good advancing into position for the end game. The problem is that the Japanese have very little room for error. they've got to take almost every bldg on the map. 10/12 that is and bldgs are quite close to each other . Anyway, my last turn was dismal. 2 failed CC's, one which allowed a conscript to retreat from ambush and another that let a chinese first liner to retreat due to being concealed. to take back enough bldgs for the win. Ugghh! Anyway, very fun scenario!
2012-03-05
(A) Kevin Killeen
vs
Tom Sharp
Japanese win
2012-02-23
(D) Bob Callen
vs
Russ Hall
Chinese win
Russ played a good game, I had a lot of good shots early and he had trouble passing MC. Eventually he got through and almost saved the game with a WP round that broke my 9 leader and a squad in a wood building, but I was able to stack up enough units to prevent him moving to gain control of the necessary buildings in a final turn rush.