Author	treadasaurusrex (China)
Method	VASSAL
Victor	Japan
Participants	Tankodactyl (AAR)
Play Date	2023-02-06
Language	English
Scenario	ChOp001

This was a 5-session, unmitigated catastrophe for the defending Chinese that I ineptly-led, against the hard-charging Japanese Hordes commanded by Tankodactyl. He and I are both doing penance in this one, as neither side has any armor in this infantry-only, extended slugfest that took place on Christmas Eve. Others have reported that this one is a case of a Japanese juggernaut that can't help but demolish the hapless Chinese defense. Both sides drew crummy leaders, and together we threw 27 combat 7-die rolls! We used the FOW, smoke, consolidation and excess initiative optional rules.

Then Chinese concentrated their weaker force in the town on the riverside, to defend the single bridge crossing, hoping that the Japanese would batter themselves to pieces in an opposed crossing, and creating the possibility of also stopping, or delaying, their most likely engineer-assisted crossing site via a concentrated defense. This was not to be, in spite of the defender's best - and very costly - efforts. The Japanese advantage in close assault did the trick over-and-over in our play-through. Japanese persistence eventually paid off and the bridge was taken after 6 turns. The nearby, engineer-assisted crossing was also successful for the men from Nippon during game turn 12, but this action was a much costlier undertaking for the attackers, as there was a senior leader decapitation thanks to an accurate mortar barrage in turn 11. The Chinese spent most of this scenario trying to recover morale for their many disrupted & demoralized units.

After taking the riverside town, the Japanese relentlessly pursued the remaining Chinese who initially fell back on the nearby ridge line, and then to a neighboring town. The flood of Japanese units continued, and the game was beyond hope for the shattered Chinese side by the end of turn 18. Nevertheless, we fought on and finished the scenario. By the end of game turn 22, the Japanese had not only achieved a forced river crossing, but had inflicted the required number of Chinese casualties, controlled the main road, and had also exited 20 steps. There were only 9 steps of Chinese infantry and 4 leaders left at that point. The Japanese had lost a total of 9 steps and 7 leaders.

The majority of the few Chinese combat successes in this one were in adjacent-hex firefights. I give this one a 2, mostly because there was a surprising amount of maneuver, for an infantry-centric scenario, and I enjoyed the antics of my rapidly-learning & now-victorious opponent.