Terence Co
Canada
Vancouver
BC
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The Battle of Hengyang(June to August 1944 was a smaller but important tail end battle in the larger Operation Ichigo Campaign(June to August 1944) which was a massive Japanese offensive(360,000 men and hundreds of tanks) which was aimed to destroy US Army Air Force bases in China which were bombing Japan and to capture the Hunan-Guangxi railway which would link their troops in Guangxi and Indochina to their troops in the rest of China. This entailed the Japanese kick the KMT Chinese armies from the provinces of Hunan and Guangxi thus putting Central and Southern China under their control.
While the Japanese managed to capture most of their objectives by June, 1944. The US Army Air Force airfields around the city of Hengyang was the only objective left for the Japanese.
By June 1944, with the Japanese nearing Hengyang. The KMT General Fang Xianjue had ordered a mass evac of civlians from Hengyang and the US Army Air Force had hurriedly evaced their planes from the airfields around Hengyang and moved them further inland westwards.
General Fang with the KMT Chinese 10th XXXX(20,000 men in 4 divisions) were ordered to defend Hengyang to the last man and stop and at least delay and bloody the Japanese. General Fang had taken the months to heavilly fortify Hengyang constructing mulitiple firing points, creating 20 foot manmade walls, minefields, booby traps, bunkers, trenches etc. His command was also issued some light artillery and numerous mortars. While the KMT 10th Army was part of the KMT NRA Central Army, it was an average command not close to Chang Kai Shek. The KMT Chinese soldiers were also trained to close in on the Japanese attackers to nullify their artillery and air attacks and melee them.
However General Fang was a veteran of the Battle of Taierzhuang 1938 and the Battle of Changde(1943)and had learned well how to conduct a attrtional defense vs. the Japanese.
The Japanese initially attacked with two XXs(68th & 116th with 20,000 men) supported by heavy artillery, chemical weapons and air support. Thinking Hengyang would be a cakewalk and the fact that the Japanese were not able to devote more men to the attack due to the speed of their conquest of Hunan and to wait until their logistical train catches up with the main army, the Japanese commander of the 11th Army(General Isamu Yokoyama) chose devote the minimum to Hengyang.
From late June to late July, The Japanese tried to hammer their way into Hengyang but gave up after losing 15,000 men. The Japanese stung by this setback brought up two more divisions(58th and 13th) along with several 11th army independent regiments of infantry and artillery(total reinforcements around 20,000 men). On August 2, the Japanese attacked again and met with ferocious resistance. By August 4, the KMT 10th XXXX was reduced to a regiment and General Feng attempted to commit suicide but was prevented in doing so by his aide.
Due to the ferocious defense by the Chinese. A ceasefire was agreed upon and fighting ceased on August 4, 1944 and General Fang and his entire staff surrendered to the Japanese.
At the end of the battle, the Japanese lost around 20,000 men. The KMT Chinese around 10,000. The Japanese commander General Yokoyama was so impressed by the Chinese resistance that he treated the defenders well and did not enact a civlian massacre. General Fang was recruited into the Japanese controlled Chinese puppet armies but escaped with the help of Chinese commandos in 1945 and was later awarded the highest KMT Chinese military award by Chang Kai Shek.
The Battle of Hengyang 1944 game is an area movement game using a modified Storm Over Stalingrad/Taierzhuang system.
The game consists of 180 nicely made die cut counters and a very nice glossy map showing Hengyang and its environs.
Every turn is one week long. Every unit is regimental in size.
Every turn consists of the following parts:
1. Initiative phase. Both players roll a 2d6, the highest roll goes first in the action impulse.
2. Event phase. The initiative player draws an event chit. Events chits signifty a game affecting event which can range from an extra tactics chits for the KMT(Chang's telegraph) to the possibility of ending the game early(ceasefire). Some event chits are one time only events, some are put back into the event chit pool for future drawing.
3. Draw tactics chits phase. Both players draw a number of tactical chits up to their maximum. Every turn, both sides have a changing tactical chit hand max which changes from turn to turn and also is affected by certain random events. These tactical chits are important in their use in the game as they can impart certain abilities to both sides such as extra pluses to their fire rolls, minefields which block and damage an enemy advance, air strikes, bombers, move and fire(or vice versa) ability. etc.
4. Replacement Phase. When a unit is eliminated in a turn, it is not permanently eliminated yet but put into the replacement pool. In this phase, both players can retrieve units from their respective pools and put them back into the map during this phase. The replacement rate is a unit retrieved for every two units in the replacement pool. The rest of the units in the pool are permanently eliminated from the game.
5. Reinforcement Phase. Both players place their reinforcements on the map on their designated areas observing stacking limits(at 6 units per area).
6. Action Phase. Both players perform alternating action impulses during this phase starting with the initiative player of the turn.
In this phase units can be moved, fire, bombard(if artillery), use tactics chits etc. A key element of this phase is the use of leaders and command points. Each leader has a set number of command points they can use in a turn. (from 1-3). Each command point use, a leader can move only units of his designated command to move, attack or to use a tactics chits(some require a command point, some don't to activate). or to rally a unit(to flip a used unit to its ready side). or Pass. If both players pass in a row. The phase ends.
7. End Phase. Used units are put to ready position. Tactics chits can be discarded.
The game goes on for 7 turns.
Players win by:
By the end of turn 7, The player who controls the highest number of gold areas(6 in the game). If tied, the player who Controls the gold area S(Hengyang central bank building) wins.
If the ceasefire event is drawn, the game ends immidietly and the winner is the player with the least number of permanently eliminated units. If tied, the Chinese player wins.
Assesemnt: I very much like this game and is one of the best of the action impulse games. The game is fast to play, easy to learn, and very suspenseful and has a lot of meat in it(command points, tactics and event chits) and the game is very tense. The game is also historical as it shows how hard was it for the Japanese to slog through the Hengyang city defenses. The game is balanced. At the start, the Japanese look awesome with their heavy artillery vs. the puny artillery and units of the Chinese defenders, however when the Japanese do attack. They find to their horror that it is far from a cakewalk. However as time goes on, Japanese firepower begins to tell and now the nail biter begins for both sides as the Chinese try to hold on to the gold areas until the end of the game and the Japanese trying to capture as many of them.
Strategy: As said above, including I found that the Japanese at the start should focus on eliminating Chinese units by artillery bombardments on Chinese units outside towns. Even with heavy arty bombardments Chinese units in towns are almost invincible, these guys have to be dug out using Japaense infantry attacks. However the Japanese should be careful as the Chinese can counterattack and use their pesky artillery to cause losses. I have seen strung out Japanese units eliminated by opportunistic Chinese artillery. If he is also not careful, surprise Chinese defensive fire via play of tactics chits can destroy or maul Japanese attacks. The onus of the attack is on the Japanese but it should be done carefully or crippling losses could mount.
For the Chinese, the onus is the defense with carefully timed counterattacks to eject the Japanese. Chinese artillery is important in causing losses and delaying Japanese attacks. So is the play of Chinese tactical chits.
For both sides, they are limited by the limited amount of command points available and the constraints put on leaders to use them on their own units. The Japanese have the advatage of more command points(better command and control) but again there is much to do.
Anyways great game, I highly recomend. it.
An extra, while the KMT 10th XXX was not considered a top notch KMT XXX. It was a veteran command and had fought at the battle of Changde 1943 as reinforcements for the defenders of Changde. The timely arrival of the 10th XXX helped force the retreat of the IJA 11th XXX.
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