Red China [SRU Cold War, 1st Game & AAR]

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ArthurDesmond
Warrant Officer
Posts: 38
Joined: Jul 14 2020
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Red China [SRU Cold War, 1st Game & AAR]

Post by ArthurDesmond »

This is my first real sandbox game in SRU (previously I played the same country in the same scenario, mostly letting the computer make decisions) and this is also the first AAR I've ever written. I wanted to give a bit of flavor and thought to the campaign and I think an AAR might be a good way to do it.
CHINA Icon.jpg
'49 Cold War Start to July 18, 1951
The Political Situation
Facing an increasingly powerful NATO/SEATO presence in Asia, Mao opts for a strategy of grand alliance. In a matter of months all communist states have mutual defense or alliance treaties with China, along with line-of-sight and full transit treaties. Now convinced that China won't be the object of sudden attack the Chinese seek to drive imperialism from east Asia.

The Economic Situation
As the 1940s close Mao begins mass industrialization: over 100 coal-fired power plants and a limited number of other economic facilities are constructed within the first few months. The greatest weakness in the economy is the insufficient production of power and industrial goods, which makes expansion very expensive. Mao has a plan to achieve total energy independence by 1955, and seems well on his way to attaining it.

Infrastructure building occurs mainly in the core of the country, though highway networks and long railway trunks are created criss-crossing vital areas of Chinese territory.

The Military Situation
MilStats.jpg
Once China has secured alignment with the North Vietnamese and North Korean governments she immediately and fully commits to the war against imperialism. Although carried on as a 'proxy war', with China itself never being at war with the imperial governments or their running dogs, the commitment is substantial: over half of the entire Chinese army is committed.

Progress was fastest in Vietnam. Despite taking enormous losses in the first half of the campaign the coordination of Chinese command becomes more intelligent and discerning in its operations and by 1950 the South Vietnamese government and its imperialist allies have been completely driven from the penninsula.

In Korea the intervention of American airpower and resources combines with heavily fortified city complexes to turn the war into a slog. Gradually the ChiCom forces are maneuvered out of Vietnam while newly trained units are added to the front. As opposed to the constant attack/human wave doctrine practiced in Viet Nam the PLA opts to hold the line of the Koreans and gradually build up enough AFVs and artillery support.

The intervention of a few high quality (and highly expensive) late war planes possessed by China helps to somewhat counter the danger of American air power, and specially-built supply depots and ports are completed to bring supplies into Korea for the many Chinese forces helping fight for NorK freedom! When forces were sufficiently prepared a number of all-out attacks with rotating forces were committed against the South Korean urban defensive positions. While not fast this wore out and broke down their forces to the point where they finally collapsed. The heaviest fighting was in the suburbs of Seoul, where Chinese mechanized engineers and heavy tanks were driven back multiple times before finally securing the bombed-out husk that was once Seoul.

Keeping an eye on the expanding influence of the American sphere China aims to do what the USSR seems unwilling to: Burma, Thailand, Tibet and all of 'independent' Central Asia will be conquered and remade as Communist puppet states. Military bases and transport infrastructure are being built up to the very borders of these target nations.

The first to be attacked was Burma. The war, currently ongoing, has seen a third of the country seized by a Chinese suprise mechanized advance which caught Burma without defenders. Roads, supply depots, barracks and air bases are being built by engineers as the region is conquered - Burma will probably be richer as our communist toadies than they ever were as an independent country!
Burmese Front.jpg
Gaizhuang junduì

Starting in 1950 a number of massive military reforms begin, as well. Obsolete units are disbanded, their personelle and equipment reassigned to the new-and-improved Chinese forces. Using import/export and military agreements to obtain many technical advances from Warsaw Pact countries (and Sweden!) China develops the capacity to build the latest-and-greatest designs from the Second World War. While a sizeable reserve of 'light infantry' remains - mobile infantry and engineers and the better quality support brigades - the majority of new Chinese military production is focused around creating what amounts to a late WW2 mechanized army.

Further reforms are under discussion, such as integrating helicopters and multi-role missiles into armored cavalry columns, but as-yet these are just speculative: China has no combat helicopter or guided missile design, much less manufacturing, capacity.

OOC Orbat Note: The Orbat for China is *much* too small, given the number of personell - what are effectively 'armies' to me are actually a medium sized division by IRL standards. While in real-life hundreds of thousands of Chinese fought in the Korean War my entire army for invading Burma amounts to 3 divisions, a conventional army group.

PLA Mechanized Division, 1951
Exact numbers vary based on unit mission and equipment availability.

- 5 Mechanized Infantry Batallions
OT-810 Halftrack
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- 5 Combat Engineer Batallions
Discussion of combat engineer battalions in the US Army

- 5 Reconnaisance Companies
Sd. Kfz. 234/3 Puma
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Autoblinda 43
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BA-11D
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Toldi IIa
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- 2 Armor Battalions (each)
TVP50/51 Tank (Designed in CZ, never produced)
IS-2M Heavy Tank

ISU-122 AT
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or Motor Lavett M/42, a Swedish tank destroyer.

- 6 Self-Propelled Artillery Batteries
SU-152 Model 44
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sFH18M Sd. Kfz. 164
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- 2 Tower Artillery Batteries
M-10 152mm
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Morser 18 210mm
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- 5 Self-Propelled Anti-Air Batteries
L-62
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- 1 Towed Anti-Air Battery
KS-19
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ArthurDesmond
Warrant Officer
Posts: 38
Joined: Jul 14 2020
Human: Yes

Re: Red China [SRU Cold War, 1st Game & AAR]

Post by ArthurDesmond »

Red China Part 2: 7/18/1951 to 9/8/1953

By Aug. 4, 1951 Rangoon has fallen and the the war with Burma is over. Created as a protectorate of the PRC, a major reason for the targeting of Burma is to allow an envelopment invasion of Thailand. Initially the 1st and 4th 'Mechanized' divisions are deployed for an immediate attack on Thailand, but cooler heads prevail: a building-up of the military is sought before further adventures. Thailand, after all, is much better equipped than Burma!

The interim period saw the purchase of the Saracen APC system from the UK for our infantry. Apparently purchasing military secrets is as easy as a few boats full of rice! Almost 45 battalions of Saracen-equipped infantry were trained for the war with Thailand. Further developments added the PHL-63 and PHZ-81 mobile multiple rocket-launch systems, deployed alongside some older Soviet MRLS designs. In our (real-world) history the PHZ-81 was not developed until the late 1980s, though it is very similar in design to the PHL-63 and Soviet rocket trucks of the late war.

The Invasion of Thailand
The invasion of Thailand began in the summer of 1952. Mechanized armies had been assembled east of Rangoon and along the western peninsula. Further motorized forces and Spetznaz were assembled to east and south of Thailand in the North Vietnamese territories. Fighting was back-and-forth for some time on the peninsula, while invasions from the south-east and north stalled when encountering unexpected enemy resistance. Soon, however, the peninsula was seized and mech forces were devoted to the capital region of Thailand. When the PLA were able to create a breakthrough in the western plains and northern forests the result was total encirclement for the defense forces of the capital city. On Nov. 22, 1952 - just scan months after the war began - Thailand's government was replaced with a friendly Marxist regime under the tutelage and protection of the PRC.

The Thai War saw the first major use of Chinese air power, mostly using MIGs and the DB-3T bomber craft. The MIGs fared somewhat poorly against Thai resistance, and the DB-3T had a fairly mediocre performance as a close-air attack wing. Significantly more luck was had with a small number of foreign imports (which I must have started the game with or bought from someone): The F4U-5 Corsair and P38J Lighting. After the war all DB-3T production ceased and the Tupolev Tu-2 was made the primary close air attack plane in production.

Infrastructure for the invasion of Tibet, expected some time in 1954, was completed in Uigherstan and the mountainous/forest regions near Tibet - barracks, supply camps and lots of roads are erected to help the PLA conquer the unforgiving, arid wilderness of the Pamir.
Chinese Protectorates.jpg
On a more simply political side, expansion of coal-fired power plants remains the primary aim of the PRC 5 Year Plan. Shortages of consumer goods have become a major profit point for the PRC, who has garnered hundreds of millions in profitable trade with developing nations in South America.

New Land Forces

PHL-63
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PHZ-81
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Saracen APC
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Little discussed so far is the air force of the PLA. It mainly consists of MIG-1 and war surplus bombers; however a new design (the Tu-2) has been introduced, a late-war Soviet divebomber. Of particular use in the Thai war were foreign-produced fighter/bombers, the origin of which was unknown.

New Air Forces

DB-3T
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F4U-5 Corsair
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MIG-1
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P38J Lightning
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Tu-2
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