The Coastal Front - Late Summer 1937

     August 1937 sees the end of the Chinese navy.  The Chinese navy started out with eight light cruisers, two destroyers and one transport.  These ships, combined, are good for little more than target practice.  Shortly after the declaration of war, they sallied out sink a few of my cargo ships, but were quickly driven back into port by my gunship fleets.  My carrier groups then went about sinking them at their leisure.  10 Kaigun (the Akagi and the Kaga) hit each of the Chinese groups in order, destroying them unceremoniously until reaching the last fleet in Qingdao.  The air crews were tired, and the fleet was sent back to Japan while 11 Kaigun took over.  With only three air groups, they were able to sink only one light cruiser before returning to base themselves, leaving 10 Kaigun to return and finish the job.  In the final tally, the Akagi claims three light cruisers, both destroyers and the transport; the Kaga claims four light cruisers; the Zuiho claims one light cruiser and the Ryujo remains honorless.  Our gunship fleets claim no combat kills, although 5 Kaigun, patrolling south of China, sank numerous cargo ships.

     I Gun, after crossing the Yellow River and capturing Jinan, heads due east to cut off the Qingdao peninsula.  I initially break the Gun into three groups: 1 and 2 Shidan travel along the northern provinces of the peninsula, 3 Shidan and the Gun reserve push along the southern side of the peninsula, while 4 and 5 Shidan maintain a defensive position in Junan.  My tactical bombers have been bombing the troops here nonstop since the beginning of the war, so they put up no resistance; by September 9^th they have retreated to Weihai, and surrender when attacked.  This marks the first major surrender of the war (not counting some militia divisions overrun in the first few days), and results in 10,843 Chinese POWs.  With complete naval superiority, I was able to ferry my troops southward and land them at Binhai, thereby avoiding a potentially bloody crossing of the Huai River.

    All of the key provinces of the Chihuli Gulf are now under my control, and, as expected, I don’t receive the bonus due to the fact that I am not in a faction.  Hmmph.  The main reason I’ve been avoiding joining the Axis is concern that I may want to conquer Germany someday.  However, my recent experiences indicate that Soviets generally take care of them pretty well, and the benefits of being in a faction are pretty significant, so I went ahead and joined up.  I’m not sure how Hitler would feel if he knew I was rooting against him, but oh well.

     Once the paper-work goes through I lose the neutrality bonus and gain the Chihli Gulf bonus.  Combined, this translates into a 25% improvement in my research efficiency, cutting more than a month off of some of my research projects.  The “naval supremacy in the east” bonus also becomes available, although I don’t plan on receiving it until the end of the game.  I was expecting the “naval supremacy in the west bonus” too, but it doesn’t show up.  That is not a big deal; I was not likely to receive it until the game was nearly over anyway.  As a trade off, the “pact of steel” bonus (+5% research efficiency, +5% supplies) is now available to me; it is a smaller bonus, but it is more useful because it triggers fairly early.