The Japanese launched an offensive toward Xuzhou on 26 January. By the third week of March, the 10th Division, numbering close to 25,000 men and 100 armored vehicles, had reached Taierzhuang. The Chinese had heavily fortified the towns and villages in the Taierzhuang District, and the hard stone construction of the buildings made them miniature fortresses. The Japanese opened the initial assault on 24 March with a massive artillery bombardment of the Chinese positions.
Attacker: Chinese (Elements of 31st Division)
Defender: Japanese (Elements of 10th Division)
8 turns
Players: 2 OBA: None Night: No
Unit Counts:
Squads: A:68.0 D:49.0
AFVs: A:2
PSW 222(g) x 2
D:3
Type 89A CHI-RO x 3
Guns: A:0 D:0
Misc Rules:
A: FB7, BT Level C w D: no HIP set up, not Stealthy
Map Board(s):
DW-7a
DW-7b
Overlays:
R4
R6
R1
Errata (source)
Players wanting to play this game/Request a match:
Scott had not played with the Chinese before and I suggested this one. I've liked the ITR scenarios I've played, and this was no exception. It's obviously modeled off ASL C, and has a fairly scripted setup (which I don't mind). Both sides get to attack and defend. Even without many vehicles, there's a lot going on in this one. One of my half turns took 3 hours (Turn 7 I believe). I debated setting up a finger of men down the middle of the board and jumping things off with some DD charges, but thought these men could be too easily cut off and decided on a more concentrated defense. The first few turns were relatively blood-free, as he got a toehold in the first factory and I pushed the attack in the middle. Turn 4 saw the extreme carnage begin, as his infiltrators in the second factor ran up against my kill stack and were shredded. A total of 5 Japanese squads and 1 Chinese squad eliminated during his half turn. My half of the turn was no less bloody, with 4.5 Chinese squads and 3.5 Japanese squads going down. The body counts would only increase from there, though Turn 5 saw a bit of a reprieve as we both licked our wounds. He did manage to capture the first factory, while I had yet to take a building. I captured my first two on Turn 6 - one in the hard-fought middle, and one in the west with a flanking force. The second factory was in extreme danger of falling, so I extricated half my force to make a push in the northwest. By this time the Japanese were getting quite thin, and both my flanking forces spread him out just enough to cause much-needed distractions for me. Meanwhile my remaining men in the factory held out a turn longer than expected as I tied him up in melees. CC was the name of the game in the later rounds; one half turn we had 11. Turn 7 saw me grab my minimum 4 buildings, while threatening to retake the first factory. By my Turn 8 I had pushed my building count to 5, and secured the first factory. With no realistic (or even miraculous) chance, the Japanese called it at that point. I counted 21.75 hours of game time logged in this monster, but both Scott and I agreed it was great fun.
2020-11-29
(D) Scott Sherer
vs
Jeff Buser
Chinese win
Agree with Jeff...a very entertaining scenario. Jeff's description is excellent, and I dont have much to add as far as how the game played out. Interesting decisions required for force allocations on both sides, but as the Japanese, it's an choice on how much to commit to taking the factories and how much to commit to holding the rest of the buildings. I think I had a decent balance, but lost too much manpower during the middle of the game which left not quite enough to take and hold both factories and hold the line for the stone victory buildings. Great fun, with Japanese and Chinese flame-throwers facing off in the factory!
