Burma moving on!

From the 8th of April ’44 turn there have a number of turns that not a lot happened. This is due to the inevitable re supply and the slow movement of units in terrible terrain. The last two weeks of April were mud compounding problems.

April 15 thru 22 the Imphal area attack were a disaster for the Japanese. Several Bns were lost, and mud thought to be a benefit in slowing British response just locked every one up.

In the West the Allies attacks were weak. They lost s 6-3-4 and 7t of supply were blown.

Imphal late game

So by the 22nd of April both sides were spent supply wise and unit cohesiveness.

The Japs spent the better part of the month May bringing in repalcements for the   30th? Division. And shuffling 1-2t at a time back into the Naga Hills for a second offense. Allies build up forces for a push thru the Moguang Valley. The chindits proved a nuisance but achieved little.

By the 15th of may the Allies are ready to start their offensive thru the Valley. With 4 attacks they power into the Japanese defenses. The Japanese however had not been idle in this time and had invested scares resources to build level 2 hedgehogs. The results were brutal 6 Brigades lost for no territorial gains.

Both sides step back to re assess strategy.

The game as a solo effort was difficult for me to play. When a series of units is moved to ‘fake’, or ‘draw forces’ , the ability to disassociate here is too hard. This was never more true than around Imphal. While I see the value in learning supply train capabilities this game for me did little else in terms of learning the OCS rule set, as there are a number of key exclusions that muddle things for future game learning.

The Japanese are possibly best served by focusing their efforts on trapping units South of Imphal in the early game, here taking risks with supply are worth it. Fooling your opponent into the trap is key, as they attempt to wiggle out of a tough situation. The Japanese need to force the Allies to attack their way out. Whilst they do that the rest of the forces should be situating them selves for a major push on the supply road while denying Imphal based forces any relaxation.

western board end state

I attempted this but attacked too early. The constant juggling of Japanese Bns into fighting range kep lots of Brigades tied up in and around Imphal. Once again tho to sneak onto the road and cut off any of the towns or Imphal it self requires subtly that is often lost in single player efforts. It was at this point that the constant shuffling one or two hexes forward and back looking for weak spots lost its interest for me.

Over on the western side of the board IF the Japs can contain the Chindit nuisance they can focus upon building supply and digging in. The Allied Galahad based effort to go around the mountains and jungle to attack Myit’ failed. Their direct assaults on dug in positions failed as well. Once again this is an encircle and choke approach versus brute force.

I chose to finish up at this point. Primarily as I could not find a simple way to fascilitate the subtle of probe counter probe, and frankly it was not fun. Each side had sat idle long enough that supply was plentiful, but neither side could gain the positional advantage to choke the other.

I think playing this game 2 player would likely be a blast. Though I imagine the campaign would take a very, very long time to execute given the two and fro required from what I can tell.

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