Exit the Dragon

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catatonic
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Posts: 1113
Joined: Jun 03 2009
Human: Yes

Exit the Dragon

Post by catatonic »

Well, here it is in the year September 2038 and I have finally beaten China. This my first new military conquest since 2035 when I took down the Russian "Bear". Russia fell in July of 2035 but huge regions were taken over by the former Ukraine and Kazakhstan. I immediately recovered these territories with attacks on the Ukraine in August 2035 and Kazakhstan in December 2035.

The two intervening years have been spent in diplomacy, preparation and a slow war of attrition against China on three fronts.

On the diplomacy side, although I was the world super-power with over nearly 2 billion citizens in my tri-continental empire, I was also hated throughout the rest of the world. My diplomatic strategy since 2034 has been to maintain a low military capacity in comparison to other super-powers, which meant shutting down all of my arms production except for missiles. This move, and a lessening of tensions, allowed me to bring in the Western European democracies as allies late in the game. But after my attacks on Ukraine and Kazakhstan, I was the big bad villain again, diplomatically speaking.

But this diplomatic campaign was not altruistic - I knew that I could best Britain, France and Germany militarily as I had in previous combat simulations. In a secret compact it was agreed that if they would be allies, I would act to re-structure their economies in order to increase their GDP and treasuries. I would also provide them with high-tech level unit designs that they would use to supply me with the units that I had stopped building on my own. Two such large cash-for-arms transfers were secretly conducted - one in 2036 and a second in 2038. Today France, the U.K., Germany and Israel are all at peace and have increased their GNP due to my leadership. Although they still suffer under a crushing debt load (except for Israel), they have all increased their treasuries ten-fold. Israel now has a lot more parking space.

Still, my region in Eurasia was surrounded with potential adversaries. To my West were the Balkan countries, Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania and even Austria who I had yet to become allies with. To my South were Greece, Turkey and the Mid-East, none of which liked me much. China loomed large to the East, on the brink of declaring war. Much of 2037 was spent bringing most of these neighboring regions into the U.S. alliance.

China had conquered my ally Mongolia in 2035 and in February of 2036 the Chinese Dragon declared war on me. I thought long and hard about the best strategy to use against them. This was discussed previously in my post on the SR2020 Military forum:

http://www.bgforums.com/forums/viewtopi ... 46&t=15408

I chose to:

1. Reclaim the spoils of war that China had so un-fairly cheated me of, i.e. Siberia and its petroleum resources.

2. Re-take the port of Vladivostok and the petroleum resources around Sakhalin Island on the Russian Pacific coast.

3. Invade China and ultimately take the Chinese Capital at Beijing from the less defended West, as I have successfully done previously.

Goal number one was more emotional than coldly strategic - if I work long and hard at prosecuting a war, then I want the full reward, the spoils of war. Not just a part of the territories and resources. Not just part of their arms, military and designs - I want it all.

But aside from any strategic decision, I wanted to fight China any way that I enjoyed.

My second decision to re-take former Pacific Russian territory was influenced by the events following the fall of Russia. Surprisingly the periphery of Siberia in the Russian Far East fell under U.S. influence. So much so that the U.S. gained control of the three petroleum platforms off the East coast of Sakhalin Island, as well as large islands in the Arctic Ocean. But most important were the two new U.S.-controlled Kunashiri Islands (KI) to East of Japan's Northern-most island of Hokkaido.

It also made sense since it confronted China with a new war on two fronts. Since China was already at war with India, Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines and a few others, the Dragon was now being tormented on multiple fronts.

But most of all, goal number two allowed me to set in motion a long-delayed global strategic objective - to unleash my western CONUS reserves. For years I had been building a bi-coastal armed force - one for the Atlantic basin and Europe and another for Asia and the Pacific. Attacking China gave me the perfect excuse for un-leashing my aging West Coast forces into the Pacific to re-take the former Russian Pacific territories.

Goal number three was simpler - I had completed moving my eastern CONUS forces to Europe. I had a huge conquering army deployed in the former Russian/Ukraine territories, as well as hundreds of Russian artillery, AA and bridging units in reserve. I was too busy closing former Russian bases and garrisons to even consider building more. Yet my biggest opponent to the East was not China but the supply issue. There were thousands of kilometers of barren steppe, mountains and desert between my forces in Europe and Beijing. So instead of just rolling my several thousand units eastward into China, I decided to adopt the tactic of slowly extending my supply strength East while reclaiming lost Russian and Mongolian territories and resources. The first two goals would be the lost petroleum fields in N.W. Siberia and the huge western Chinese base at Changji.

In the Pacific some advance bases were already in place - Hawaii was fully militarized. The Alaskan Aleutian Island chain originally had two inconspicuous bases which I spotted early in the game and continued to support. In the South Pacific I had begun to build a chain of island bases into the Pacific islands region. And now I had been given the KI, sheltered by my ally Japan.

The tactical plan on the Eastern front was as follows: deploy my West coast reserve, establish a new forward operating base in the KI, conduct amphibious landings and take Sakhalin Island, build bigger bases and air-fields there from which to conduct a major assault to re-take Vladivostok. As a preliminary move I air-dropped Engineers in the KI and in Kamchatka where they began constructing forward bases.

Then I executed the long-over-due plan. My entire Western military industrial complex finally had a mission. I laboriously began to deploy the long-dormant CONUS units - infantry, para-troops, armor, artillery, AA, supply units, ships and aircraft, all reserved for so long in California, Oregon and Washington State.

Navy, naval air and amphib bases in San Diego came to life. Transport ships deployed and headed North to load and transport units to far Pacific targets. Marines and their equipment deployed in Oceanside and awaited the arrival of their transports. East of Los Angeles aircraft starting to deploy from the desert bases at Edwards AFB. Infantry and armor at Fort Ord near Monterey filed out to their sea-piers to be transported to Asia.

Around San Francisco the Bay Area became a hive of activity as carriers and naval aircraft met up for their first mission. Helicopter-decked carriers began to cruise the coast, like taxis offering a ride to the first rotary-winged passenger that hailed a ride to Asia.

At Fort Bragg the tension built as hundreds of airborne soldiers and engineers, Light and Leap infantry, Rangers, Special Forces and super-Warriors prepared to wield their airborne AT, tanks, artillery, AA and Supply units in combat for the first time. Huge transport aircraft hovered over-head, prepared to sweep down and scoop up the high-tech laser armed infantry, recon and transport units and drop them into the unknown Far East.

In the U.S. Pacific Northwest the same activity began, but at a slower pace. Ships and other units fabricated at Seattle, Everett, Olympia and Bremerton began to stream from specially built naval storage bases outside the Sound. Naval aircraft deployed and flew to the decks of their Washington-based carriers as the ships slowly got under-weigh. On the U.S. East coast and all over the globe transport ships slowly steamed towards the Panama canal and then Northward to the U.S. West-coast. Transport planes from as far away as Nova Scotia took off and headed West. Once loaded their initial port-of-call was to be Hawaii from which they would steam to Japan.

A word now about the enemy: In 2036 China was the only remaining super-power besides the U.S. She had achieved a staggering level 150 technology and so possessed the high-tech, super-powered units that I never dreamed of having to face in this war. She lacked only a credible naval force since most of her major surface ships had been neutralized by Taiwan and Japan. Her 80 submarines were typically inactive.

Its cities were super-bases, bristling with long-range W-2 MLRS artillery units, SA-20 and SA-30 AA, Super Tiger fighter planes and Mi-120 HelioKasan attack super-helicopters. Except for their newly acquired coastal city of Vladivostok, Chinese cities appeared to be impregnable. I decided early on not to risk any of my air-assets in mainland China due to the incredible amount of AA there.

A modest amphibious landing on Sakhalin Island (SI) was quickly planned and executed in mid 2036. We would land the force on SI, take the town and barracks there and set up house-keeping. Japan was at war with China and SI was protected by a large Japanese fleet in the strait. In theory the infant landing force would be safe from the distant forces on the Chinese mainland, who if we were lucky would not respond at all. Amphibious transport ships were chosen since there were no welcoming sea-piers on southern Shakelin Island. Specially chosen amphib-only land units, armor, AA, artillery and supply units were loaded onto these transports at Fort Ord in Monterey, California, South of San Francisco. A strong escort of warships was provided to supply a strong anti-air cover for the landing force.

Since the new bases in the KI were incomplete, the landing force steamed to Hawaii, re-fueled and then headed for their target at SI. They arrived at SI as planned without incident. It was decided to risk landing on the southern end of SI near the Chinese base. This was South of the protective Japanese fleet, but hopefully still within their AA umbrella. The escort ships and a CV-16 carrier would provide their own AA. The warships took their stations and the amphibious transports began to land their units on the beach.

The entire force was landed safely and the transports began to pulling away to a safe distance behind the escort warships. But then luck ran out for the happy landing force - the Chinese struck un-expectedly and struck hard. This initial beach-head on the southern end of Island was struck by hordes of high-tech enemy aircraft from no less than five Chinese air-bases, some of which were hundreds of kilometers distant. The U.S. AA cover collapsed under a deluge of Chinese Super Tiger fighter planes. The beach-head was obscured by explosions as Chinese aircraft streamed in from all directions, striking U.S. land and sea units alike.

When the smoke cleared the landed units, transport ships and their naval escort had all been wiped out in the un-expectedly fierce Chinese strike. My worst fears of an omnipotent adversary were suddenly and brutally confirmed.

Back on the western front it was decided to divide the huge U.S. land force S.W. of Moscow in half and send them East. Air units were neglected for the time being. It was the responsibility of these units to:

1. Re-capture the few garrisoned enemy villages.

2. Re-take former Russian barracks and air-fields from Chinese control.

3. Build a lot of supply depots, roads and rail-roads.

4. Garrison the vast new southern border.

5. Repair former Kazakhstani oil fields.

The Russian steppe is a huge, desolate area, crossed by many rivers. It is no wonder that the Russians built so many bridging units. Luckily many former Russian garrisons and air-fields already existed, ready to be used once their pesky Chinese garrisons has been evicted. Supply bases were constantly built along the eastern front, designed to push the U.S. supply strength farther and farther East. Existing roads were sufficient in most places, but more were built where it was decided that it would increase the flow of supply.

A whole new supply technique occurred to me - instead of building only supply bases, why not build farms and water works? Certainly they would serve as supply points too. I called the program "agricultural warfare".

The task of garrisoning the southern border, even though not directly related to the Chinese offensive was an important objective since the mid-east countries like Turkey, Iran, Kyrgyzstan and Pakistan could and did declare war throughout the 2036-2038 period. Most of these were easily pacified but many hours were spent in dogged diplomacy in order to finally ally regions like Iran and Tajikistan. The presence of existing ally India was a comfort throughout the China conflict.

In any case, many new military fortresses and air defenses were constructed on our southern border and these were slowly garrisoned with U.S. operational units from the western steppe and with new units moved in from the West.

U.S. forces began to move against China's newly acquired petroleum fields in N.W. Siberia. The closest of these stolen fields were the four in a row just East of Khanty-Mansiysk. A small force of engineers escorted by infantry traveled, across the many rivers of the steppe to this town, and quickly defeated its garrison. The Engineers then began to built a supply base and air-field. Meanwhile the infantry moved east where they one by one liberated each of the four oil/gas fields.

Once the air-field was completed 25 Warrior, Ranger and Special Forces units were quickly flown in to begin the liberation of the remaining six or seven oil fields to the N.E. This operation went flawlessly due to the complete lack of Chinese air or land units to hold the area. Oil/fields were taken one by one as groups of eight stealthy Warriors were air-dropped onto the un-suspecting enemy garrisons.

In order to supplement this northern liberation strategy, villages all over western Siberia were re-taken by air-borne troops. In addition a sea-pier building program was initiated, designed to strengthen the weak U.S. supply strength along the northern Arctic coast. Re-control of the Arctic Ocean was hampered by the lack of a sizable naval force there. The need and effectiveness of these initiatives was questionable in light of the sparse population of the region in question. But from a supply perspective it was considered to be part-and-parcel of the over-all effort to expand the U.S. supply frontier eastward.

My first major land engagement against China was at Changji, located in China's N.W. Xinjiang province, on the rugged Tian Shan mountain range. This desolate location suffers for poor supply due to its proximity to the arid Tarim Basin and the Taklamakan Desert to the South.

I debated long and hard whether or not to even engage the two large Chinese bases in the area, since strategically they did not lay directly on the main roadways that lead directly to Beijing. At one point I dismissed the idea as just useless combat and tedious pursuit of apparently isolated Chinese desert units. But I did accumulate a lot of units in the vicinity just to garrison my southern border with Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. In the end, the temptation was just too much. And in hind-sight, it was an excellent warm-up, a "practice" lesson on how to challenge and ultimately neutralize a huge Chinese super-base.

Changji was a typical "starburst" or Christmas-tree shaped base, consisting of 176 units, land and aircraft fabs, a barracks, an air-field and (believe it or not) the city of Changji embedded in its center. The 176 unit complex consisted of over 100 aircraft and was rich in very long-range W-2 MLRS artillery and a ton of AA. Of the aircraft, over 17 were the pesky Mi-120 HelioKasan attack helicopters. These cursed helos would harass me all over China in the proceeding conflict. Although AA is very effective against them when they are airborne, due to an SR2020 game bug they are extremely hard to kill once they land and latch onto you. And once one would arrive its many friends who would quickly join it.

For a while I just gathered units around the edge of the desert, just out of range of Changji's artillery. I brought in a lot of artillery of my own. The big base would slowly send out its land units to challenge us, so I was slowly able to drain the big base of its armor and infantry. Those that escaped (a lot of them) retreated into repair at Changji's barracks, where they were ultimately destroyed.

At first we were constantly attacked by Mi-120 helos. This was my first opportunity to test the effectives of massed groups of the ubiquitous Chinese long-range W-2 MLRS. They did indeed hit you up to seven hexes away. They would slowly wear out hex by hex of my attacking artillery. But what was missing was the intensity of the artillery fire that I had expected. I think that at the range where my units were positioned, only a few of the W-2s could reach us.

I brought up a heavy dose of SA-20 and SA-10B AA to protect each of my surrounding groups. I discovered that my artillery could shelter in Military Fortresses, which I began to build closer and closer to Changji. I also equipped the fortresses with laser air-defenses, which slowly quieted the air-activity in Changji. I slowly maneuvered my units to each side of the big base until at one point I had it surrounded on all sides with MFs and laser AA. This also cut its supply lines, which quieted its once-dreaded artillery.

Once I had the big base silent, without armor, infantry or visible aircraft I attacked it with tanks and infantry of my own. The hardest part was over-coming the defending Chinese garrison troops, because the mass of in-active artillery and AA was easy to destroy. The barracks and air-field quickly disgorged its contents of wounded infantry, armor and aircraft, which were quickly destroyed by my attackers. Then - voila! I had destroyed my first Chinese super-base.

One might think that I had just learned how to dismantle a Chinese super-base, but this is not true. What I had really learned was how not to destroy a super-base. The practice exercise way too lengthy and send many - too many units to the hospital. Again in hind-sight the real lesson was first to skip the artillery counter-battery. Secondly drain off the base's defending armor from a distance outside of enemy artillery range. Then move in and remotely detonate the aircraft of the super-base using long-range AA. Finally instead of laboriously constructing offensive bases, surrounding and strangling the base - just attack it with a cavalry charge of over-whelming infantry and armor.

With this victory under my belt I -another pointless excursion further South to clean out the Tarim Basin and the Taklamakan Desert. Without the threat of Chinese AA I was able to use my FB-22 aircraft to very good effect. Twelve of these killed every last stray, stranded Chinese unit wandering the desert, all of the way to India. Meanwhile my units (with air-support) liberated all of the villages along the road lining the Northern rim of the basin, plus one air-base.

Returning to the Eastern front in the Pacific, I had now completed my forward bases in the KI and my islands were surrounded with non-amphibious transport ships waiting for me to construct some sea-piers on Sakhalin Island to the North.

In this repeat attempt to take SI my amphibious transports were now parked around the N.E. coast of the island. This new, larger assault force was physically separated from the Chinese mainland by the huge protective Japanese fleet in the strait. The transport ships were protected by a huge U.S. force of long-range AA cruisers and destroyers. In addition there were five carriers loaded with Interceptor aircraft.

This time the landing was again accomplished without a hitch, but this time there was little or no Chinese response. The two Engineers went about their slow task of building a sea-pier. They were soon joined by several additional Engineers brought in from the ships waiting at anchor at KI. Soon the sea-pier was complete and work was begun on an air-field and barracks. Sufficient additional land units were shipped in from KI to constitute a force deemed strong enough to re-take the air-field and town on the southern part of the island. Special supplementary SA-10B and SA-20 AA units were air-lifted from Russia and flown via CONUS to SI. Three more long-range anti-air CV-16 carriers were on the way.

Soon the stage was set for the repeat of what promised to be an epic air-defense battle. A recon unit was sent South to check out the southern air-fab/air-field that would be the first target. The U.S. AA fleet moved South along the coast to cover the two targets. They quickly began to fire on the token aircraft and other visible units within the two target hexes. Then slowly the new group of about 15 mixed Russian SA-10B and SA-20 S-400 Triumf AA units were moved South to the center of the island. The mood was tense but there was still no unusual Chinese air activity detected at any of their many mainland air-bases.

Front-line infantry and AT was brought South with artillery following behind them. Supply trucks were staged in the rear ready to assist if needed. When everything was set the attack order was given. U.S. land units surged forward and attacked the now empty air-field and fabs. The token Chinese defense units quickly folded and the combined fire-power of the U.S. ships and attacking land units quickly neutralized the garrison troops of the first objective. Surprisingly satellite surveillance showed no unusual air activity in China.

The U.S. attackers quickly moved South to their final objective - the southern-most town and power-plant. As U.S. forces were dispatching the defending Chinese garrison there, several Chinese mainland aircraft began to fly from their bases towards the SI. The anticipated Chinese response had begun. The Supreme Ruler held his breath as the first attacking Chinese plane zoomed in to defend the Chines SI bases.

When the first Chinese aircraft reached the fourth hex from the SI it miraculously transformed into a flying torch that continued its trajectory to the SI coast. There it burst into an even larger cloud of flame. This was a spectacular sight but nothing like the awesome display that was to come. Chinese fighter planes began to stream in to attack SI, just as before, from the five nearest air-fields. These bases contained a combined total of maybe 500 aircraft, many of them fighters. The pace of incoming Chinese fighter planes rapidly increased. Each one inscribed a beautiful golden trail of flame as it approached the U.S. position in the southern SI.

Soon the battle-field was again obscured by yellow explosions. How could the SR tell if the explosions were Chinese aircraft or his own precious units? He began to count how many aircraft entered the golden cloud and how many exited. Soon it became clear - the southern SI had become like a roach motel for Chinese fighter planes - mostly fighter planes checked in, but they rarely checked out.

When the smoke and flame finally cleared the bulk of the U.S. invasion force was still intact. A little bent, but still intact. The BDA revealed the impressive statistics: Chinese aircraft lost - 133. U.S. units lost - 11. The Chinese count 19 U.S. units destroyed but that figure cannot be verified by the SR. The battle against China seems to be going the U.S.'s way. Twice it has been proved that the Chinese Dragon is not invincible. But as events unfolded, this battle only effected China's MAR, since the destroyed Chinese aircraft were all from N.E. China, far from Beijing and the main body of my attacking forces.

The beginning of my true assault on mainland China began at the former Russian Lake Baikal, in the Irkutsk region. Once I was finished putzing around in the Xinjiang desert I accidently panned right and suddenly discovered that Beijing was not far off. My Russian invasion forces to the North had reached Lake Baikal which is on the direct road to Beijing and a mere 2000 km from Beijing. The eastern tip of this inland fresh-water sea is near the N.W.-most tip of homeland China. This was like a wake-up call for me. I also decided to check out China's MAR. China's Military Approval Rating was down from an original figure of 100% to a mere 16%! Were they ready to surrender? I was re-invigorated.

The date was August 20th, 2038 and my invasion of China proper was about to start. China's homeland defenses consisted of 13 typical Christmas-tree shaped city/fab/bases just like those at Changji, averaging 175 units each. In addition there were 7 airbases consisting of 124 - 200 units each, mostly aircraft.

But I was no longer intimidated by the mighty Dragon. I had 700 units in my main attacking body. In addition I had over 900 European reinforcements at my back. There were only seven Chinese bases between my Russian main body force and Beijing. The bad news was that three of the enemy bases in my direct path to China's Capital were super-bases, one of which was a pure air-base. Several more enemy bases threatened my future left flank.

Here is the Order of Battle on August 20th, 2038:

U.S. UNITS
Total:
5710 deployed, 2045 reserve

Land:
4626 deployed, 1190 in reserve (including 600 Russian artillery, AA and bridging)

Air:
798 deployed, 369 in reserve (105 from allies)

Distribution of U.S. deployed:
Eurasia - 2360

CONUS West coast - 560 ships, planes and airborne
Pacific - 525 (including 40 troop ships and their cargo of over 100 non-airborne units of all types)
Chinese theatre - 1702
890 infantry
410 tanks
20 AT
126 Artillery
150 AA


CHINA UNITS
Total:
6000 deployed, reserve - very few
Land:
3625

Air:
2300

On August 20th West of the Southern tip of Lake Baikal my immediate desire was to just use my massed units to force my way to Beijing. Unfortunately the rivers and bridges around the Lake's tip formed a choke-point that prohibited this. I had to patiently dismantle each small obstructing base and garrison, one-by-one. This again led to my operating on the enemy's terms - fighting with too few units with too few supplies against an entrenched enemy with a home-field advantage. Clearing the lake Baikal region and getting onto the straight road to Beijing took an unreasonable amount of time, but of course this was eventually accomplished.

But even then I was faced with another tactical decision - should I send a force to the North- East to neutralize the three small air-fields there or just continue S.E. on the main road to the towards Beijing? If I ignored these three Northern air-fields then I might have to endure harassment from my left flank on my way to my major objective.

I decided to do both. I brought forward my entire invasion force around the tip of the Lake and put them on the main S.E. road to Beijing. But I also sent a smaller group to neutralize the Northern enemy air-fields. This smaller group accomplished their mission and was able to travel over-land to join up with the main body in time to take out the first Chinese super-airbase in out path at Sayn-Shada.

As we proceeded East we were constantly confronted by defending Chinese infantry and armor which typically we badly injured. Anyway, these injured units would then retreat east-ward for repair to a barracks. So when my main group rolled over the large land fab/barracks complex at Ulaanbaatar that was blocking our way, all of the damaged land units came spilling out as usual and were finally destroyed.

Strangely, China did not seem to come pre-equiped with much armor when our war with them began. Most of the "Chinese" armor that we encountered was that captured in the Chinese wind-fall acquisition of eastern Russia.

Then we rolled on to attack Sayn-Shada. I refer to it as a super-airbase not because of the size of the base itself - it was just another air-field. But it was host to over 100 Chinese aircraft, many of which were high-tech fighter planes and killer super-helicopters. These excessive aircraft formed an impressive cloud of circling aircraft that greatly increased the visual profile of the air-base.

As the OOB above indicates, my main invasion force was accompanied by 150 AA units of all types. If the battle of Sakhalin Island was the mother of all AA battles then the up-coming one at Sayn-Shada was to be the father of all aircraft slaughters. The performance of artillery and AA in such circumstances depends heavily upon the ambient supply environment. I deliberately slowed the advance of my invasion force and constantly tasked my infantry and recon units to widen our corridor of control in order to stimulate the flow of supply to my invasion force units. Our trail of captured Chinese facilities assured a strong source of supply, once my Engineers had repaired them.

So when my huge formation of units finally approached the Sayn-Shada air-base I was sure to place my AA units in the vanguard. And my AA units were full supplied then they came within firing range of Sayn-Shada's myriad aircraft. I was not disappointed - it was another Chinese aircraft turkey-shoot. Suddenly the skies over the enemy air-field were filled with nothing but flaming Chinese aircraft. Those that managed to approach my formation were destroyed before they could cause any damage.

At this point I want to say a little about Chinese missiles. This enemy did have a lot of missiles and many were shot at my attacking forces as they approached a Chinese base. The Scud missiles in particular were very impressive - they were so huge that their image would cover the diameter of one entire hex. Yet I witnessed very few of my units actually being destroyed by Chinese missiles, mostly due to the outstanding performance of my high-tech Russian AA.

Anyway, all of my little guys were in serious need of some R+R and they all really enjoyed the sky-show and fireworks at Sayn-Shada. After all, the Chinese invented fireworks, didn't they?

And moral was high anyway - we only had two objectives to take before the big attack on Beijing. Very big objectives, I'll grant you. The next one was Hohhot (seriously) a big military complex containing a variety of fabs, bases and a research facility. But they were totally lacking in infantry and armor. There was plenty of W-2 MLRSs, as usual.

I had mixed feelings about even bothering to take the place down - it was not located directly on the road to Beijing and could easily have been bi-passed, But I dislike having to watch my "6" all of the time and I was un-comfortable about leaving such a big live base full of enemy units on my right flank as I was trying to take another big bad Chinese super-base.

So we parked the invasion force beside the road and let our hyper-active AA units burn off Hohhot's aircraft. Then we casually motored over and wiped it out. Too late in the game for the subtleties of neutralizing a hundred garrisons by stealth and approach.

The last obstacle to our attacking Beijing was the super-base at Huairen. Again there was a side road that would have allowed us to by-pass this big base, but at this crucial point in the campaign to slay the Dragon I did not want to take any chances. I still had plenty of healthy units and could bring in plenty more if required. Our supply chain had been well maintained and would be adequate if we stopped and slowly re-supplied everyone before assailing Beijing.

So we stopped again and allowed our massive AA to perform its destructive aircraft magic. Then we rolled over and casually stomped the living crap out of every unit and garrison troop in Huairen. This created a big safe parking lot for my 1500 units to bivouac, organize and re-supply for our last big push into China's Capital city.

That night I could not sleep due to worry about the aftermath of the fall of China - how much of China would the U.S. receive? What luckily bordering regions would I be forced to share my spoils with? How much territory would I lose to the neighbors? Did they sell beer on Tiananmen Square?


Order of Battle (Battle of Beijing, Sept 4th)

U.S. UNITS

China Theatre - 1550 (approximate, minus 157 from August 20th)


CHINA UNITS

Total:
3850

Land:
1710

Air:
1890 (fixed-wing combat - 960, attack helos - 650)


Naval:
260 (Warships - 24, Subs - 80, Patrol - 146)


The next morning we got ready for the big assault. I decided to check the morale of my opponent before engaging in combat. I checked with my State Department who said that Chinese MAR was down from 16% to just 7%. This made me wonder if I even needed to take their Capital - maybe they would just surrender. But that was just wishful thinking on my part,

I chose a novel approach for this attack. I was really low on AT units so I sent the remaining 20 of them to lead the attack. I placed them several hexes from the edge of the Beijing city complex. These unfortunate units would undoubtedly receive the initial brunt of the Chinese counter-attack, including incoming missiles. But they would also draw out Beijing’s armor where the ATs could get a good shot at them. Next I brought up my remaining AA units to provide air cover for the ATs and for the bulk of my attack units. Once all of these lead units were in place I watched as the Chinese defenders rolled out of the city to engage us. I then brought up my artillery to cover the vanguard units and hopefully neutralize the Chinese counter-attack.

Once combat activity died down I ordered my infantry and tanks to directly attack the Capital dome structure in the city of Beijing. The cavalry charge bugle call was sounded and the bulk of heavy forces rolled into the western side of the big Beijing city complex. Almost immediately armored Chinese re-enforcements began to roll into the eastern side to protect their Capital. The big battle was on but soon there were so many explosions that I could not determine what was going on or who was winning. I was able to monitor the roster of units located inside Beijing, but none of my forces were on the list. The clock ticked on but the list of Chinese defenders just stayed static and finally began to grow.

I immediately determined what was wrong - my hundreds of attacking armor and infantry units had run out of supplies. Fortunately I had planned for just this type of contingency. I had a multi-hex formation of supply units waiting back in the parking lot. I ordered them to hurry to the assistance of my Beijing attack units. But there was one problem - in order to get to my combat units in the Beijing city complex, my supply units would have to pass through hexes filled with hundreds of my own hungry AT, AA and artillery units. I needed to get those now useless units out of the way of my supply trucks and their vital supplies.

I ordered very U.S. unit between Beijing's western city limits and my eastward-bound supply trucks to get out of the way. But they were very slow to respond and this drove me crazy. I desperately selected, ordered movement and then re-ordered movement of these exhausted obstructing units. Finally, just before the supply convoy rolled past their position, most of these extraneous units cleared the road and let my supply units pass.

Soon the supply convoy rolled into the Beijing complex and performed their supply mission. And the effect of combat was readily apparent since the crucial list of Beijing defenders began to shorten. Before long I received those wonderful five words - "We have taken their Capital" - music to my ears. I anxiously awaited my next SITREP at midnight. The news was wonderful - we had finally taken China.

But then we waited for the other news - regarding just who had actually taken control of former Chinese territory and the important resources there. China still had about ten intact super-bases and about five huge air-fields of valuable aircraft - the control of hundreds, maybe thousands of units and millions of square Kilometers of territory hung in the balance. Final reports finally began to come in and the news was not good. Japan had taken a large piece of eastern Chinese territory as far North as the former southern Chinese border with South Korea. Surprisingly, China's ally South Korea had gotten nothing, nor had its arch-enemy Taiwan. In the South Laos and India had taken bases, aircraft and territory as far North as Northern Taiwan.

Never-the-less, it was a great victory for the U.S. who received the lion's share of the slain Chinese Dragon. Accurate figures are difficult to come by without Chinese statistics, but it appears that the U.S./SR received a net gain of at least 1000 Chinese units, 2 million military personnel and billions of new citizens.


BDA:

U.S. losses:
Total - 473
(not including initial SI attack)
War of attrition - 149
Attack on China homeland - 157
Beijing Assault - 167

Chinese Losses:
Total - 4785
War of attrition - 2290
Homeland attack - 2333 (403 aircraft)
Beijing Defense - 160
Last edited by catatonic on Sep 23 2009, edited 2 times in total.
"War is merely the continuation of politics [diplomacy] by other means"
General Carl von Clausewitz - 1832

"Defense: De ting dat keeps de cows off de road."
Catatonic - 2012
Hullu Hevonen
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Re: Exit the Dragon

Post by Hullu Hevonen »

ALOT OF TEXT!!
i'll read it later today or tomorrow :-)
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Vuk-Wolf
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Re: Exit the Dragon

Post by Vuk-Wolf »

Hell yeah so long made me read just Beggining and end lol im too lazy to read it :-(
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