Generalissimo Jiang Kai-shek had committed some of his best divisions to aid the British defense of Burma. One of them, the 200th, was fighting valiantly to hold the walled city of Toungoo, now nearly encircled by the Japanese. Major-General “Vinegar Joe” Stilwell, nominally in charge of the Chinese Expeditionary Force in Burma, ordered the new Chinese 22nd Division to push south along the Mandalay-Rangoon road to relieve the pressure on Toungoo's defenders and hopefully open a corridor to them. . .
Attacker: Chinese (66th Infantry Regiment / 1st Tank Regiment)
Defender: Japanese (143rd Infantry Regiment, 55th Infantry Division)
9.5 turns
Players: 2 OBA: Chinese Night: No
Unit Counts:
Squads: A:29.0 D:19.0
AFVs: A:10
T-26TU M33(r) x 6 Carrier A(b) x 2 Carrier B(b) x 2
AFVs: D:0
Guns: A:0
5cm leGrW 36(g) x 3
D:5
Type 94 Rapid-Fire Gun x 2 Year-41 Type Mountain Gun x 2 Type 89 Heavy Grenade-Launcher x 4
Misc Rules:
PTO, LJ. Ov3. Airstrip hexes play as unpaved roads
Not withstanding my desire to play all the official scenarios, this had been on my wish list for some time as it looked balanced, is large, and I have a soft spot for a good Tooz design. The pre-game bombardment managed to stripe a squad, but otherwise did very little except start a fire in the north central kunai. I did not mind this one bit as it would funnel any Chinese attack here, but it never really came to that as the brunt of the attack was from the north, with a little pressure in the south. The Chinese took a bit of a bloody nose on Turn 1, losing a DD squad to a KIA, another 1.5 squads elsewhere, and breaking the MA on one tank and the CMG on another. The Japs for their part lost a squad. Turn 2 saw the tank with the broken MA blazed up by a MG(?), and another two Chinese squads lost. Turn 3 was quiet as the Chinese reached relative safety along the NE woods outskirts, while both their MMGs broke down in the south. One of these was gone for good on Turn 4, a tank in the north was immobilized by either a THH or one of the AT guns, while a large force of Chinese started pushing their way through the NE woods - which had been reinforced by now with many Japanese bodies. The Chinese that had been testing the middle shifted in full to a northern approach, while the south still saw a Mexican standoff. Turn 5 saw the AT gun knock out a rear tank in the north, as well as burn up the one stuck in the bamboo. The Japs had started bleeding more bodies than the Chinese on the prior turn, and this trend continued, but the NE woods continued to be blocked with Japanese bodies, making extremely slow going for the Chinese. It was really looking like they were trying to force a square peg into a round hole, but by this time almost everything on this part of the board except the marsh and swamps was afire and there was no turning back. Turn 6 saw the Japs continue to slowly bleed bodies, and they decided it was time to pull everyone that had hung back closer to the impending goal line action that would soon develop. Turn 7 saw the Chinese get lucky and knock out one of the INF gun crews. Meanwhile the Chinese still had yet to get to the edge of the NE woods. Turn 8 finally saw this happen, but their one tank that had decided to move in this area bogged down, and the Japanese gun was remanned by a spare crew. The Japs had physically blocked the way to the exit with bodies, but this would be hard to hold as the Chinese had amassed a fair bit of firepower, including two heroes. Had the Chinese tank been able to get free of the woods things may have been different, but when it failed a TC to move on Turn 9, and then mired on Turn 10 there was really no chance left for them. Their only potential hope was to exit their straggling vehicles which had delayed entry until late, capture some of the the Jap guns, and make up the balance with CVP. The Jap casualties really accelerated, but the one delaying tank and two of the carriers were knocked out on Turn 9, leaving only two carriers left to exit on Turn 10. With the Japs able to break and rout most of their remaining front line forces, the Chinese were left with a total VP count of 46, well short of the 65 needed, but much higher than I ever would've imagined. One more turn and I don't think they could've been stopped.
2022-03-19
(D) Rob Schmitt
vs
Scott Martin
Chinese win
Loss to Scott Martin in March Madness 2022 tournament. I was the Japanese defender vs Chinese attacker. I setup the defense across the wide front with the Japanese. Chinese were able to successfully concentrate his attack my right flank in force. I did not do a good job of shifting forces to meet his concentration. On start of turn 5 my flank was essentially gone, and he was in good position to begin a massive exit of VPs. I conceded.
2020-10-02
(A) Paul Works
vs
Dan Best
Chinese win
Dan and I found this to be a wild and fun scenario. I attacked primarily from the west; holding my vehicles back until Turn 5 (I did bring two T-26s earlier than that) in order to find his AT guns and soften the Japanese up a bit. Dan out-guessed me (well done by him) and had placed his strongest defense covering the west. His defense was well-thought out - he had several layers of mutually-supporting lines that held me up significantly. One of his stacks (a leader, crew, MMG, and a 1-2-6 Conscript HS) held up my advance for nearly three turns (!) - that stack rolled five (5!) "2s" in one and one-half player turns and wiped out at least four of my squads (and breaking at least five more squads) by themselves. Eventually he succumbed to overwhelming numbers. I dashed my vehicles on to hide behind some jungle, then dashed them again to hide behind some more jungle/bamboo; I did lose one to one of his 75* INF guns during the second run-across-open-ground. To avoid having to risk a ROF tear by his guns, I then crunched my AFVs through the woods and created trail breaks to get off the map. We were both hot and cold on dice in this one. I did cause enough damage over the first nine turns to attrit Dan's Japanese to the point where they could not effectively stop me from exiting. He ended up malf'ing both AT guns and one of his 75* INF guns (ouch ); this breaking of three of his main weapons was a killer. If you have the time, this is a fun scenario!
2018-11-23
(A) Tom Abromaitis
vs
Japanese win
2017-08-27
(A) Jason Wert
vs
Will Willow
Chinese win
Very nice game as usual with Will. This one unfolds over a long time and was not sure if the Chinese was making enough headway. Ultimately, the Chinese generated many heros, and combined with Dare Death squads, were able to assault strongpoints. Favorable CC kept the Chinese in it for a Turn 10 win with advancing off the board with 2 squads and leader.
