From: "tippecanoe8" Subject: [consim-l] Battle for China I just started playing this game, from the MCG. It's by Brian Train, and covers the war in China from 1937~1941. Forces represent the Japanese, KMT central government (CKS) and 4 different KMT factions. The CCP is also present. As with many of Mr.Train's designs, economics & politics play key parts in the game. The Chinese must expend political support to get foreign aid. But that is expensive, and not guaranteed to work. Worse, the KMT must roll for corruption, which takes away what they just got, at least in part. The Japanese player can have as much as he wants, but he pays for it by loss of political support back home. He does get some "for free" from Manchukuo. Players can increase their political support in several ways. Winning battles is one good way. Taking cities, and controlling areas is another. The KMT can also whack the CCP, but pays a price in political support (PSP). The CCP can't fight back, at least not in this game (in More Battles for China, they get their turn). The KMT can really run up their political support early on, as moving into an empty area gives you control, and boosts your PSP. But then you lose it if either the Japanese, or CCP takes it. And you lose more than you gained by moving in! It shows well the dilemma the KMT faced. As the government, they HAD to defend as much of China as they could, yet doing so weakened them. In the game, as in real life, the CCP can spread via guerilla forces, and in general exist, but avoid warfare to a certain extend. The IJA (or KMT) can go after them, but at a high price. And forces used in that way can't be used to fight the more conventional "real" opponent. The CCP player has to be careful, in a three player game. The CCP can easily get wiped out, if they try to get too strong, too fast. They need to lay low, spread out guerillas, and in general let the KMT do the real fighting. One interesting thing is the CRT. Chinese units come only in even CF units. So if the Chinese must lose 3 CF, they must really lose 4, as they can't "make change" as the Japanese can. All Chinese forces suffer this penalty, KMT and CCP alike. The CRT does have lots of "odd" numbers CF losses. But it's not all fun for the IJA, though. One result is the dreaded (for the IJA) X. This is in essence "attacker decides". For each CF the attacker loses, the defender loses one. You can see a gleeful Chinese player removing his entire stack, so as to eliminate an IJA stack. Worse, if the Japanese gets it, he usually only wants to lose 1, which minimizes the Chinese loss. A very clever design choice, it gives the Chinese a decent chance to stay in the game. It also lets the Japanese run rampant in any given area or two they chose to, but they will never have enough forces to do this all over the vast area of China. I've played half the game, 9 turns. The KMT is still in decent shape, but the Japanese are slowly spreading. Their problem is that to get the troops they need, they weaken their political support. But the KMT got very lucky with some die rolls, getting a lot of foreign support, and not much pilferage. There are a few rules questions, but nothing too serious. All in all, pretty good gaming & replay value for your 9 bucks. Regards, Pat Last Played: Korea, Monty's Gamble, Stonewall in the Valley