Power of the East
Scenario Preview
by Mike Bennighof, Ph.D.
October 2013

I started designing wargames while I was still a teenager, which is many years ago now. Among the early games was a platoon-level tactical World War II game that eventually became Panzer Grenadier.

Very early in the process, I wanted the game to work on “real” historical maps, which was something pretty rare in tactical games at the time. They existed, but as far as I know only in samizdat form from amateur publishers. If my new game system was to work and someday cover the broad spectrum of topics I hoped it would, it needed to work on actual as well as generic terrain. And so I decided that I needed to design a test game.

I found a copy of Alvin Coox’s splendid Anatomy of a Small War in a library. The book describes, in great detail, the clash at Lake Khasan in 1938 between the Soviet Far Eastern Front and the Japanese Korean Army. I was taken by the fact that the fighting described took place on a strictly-defined piece of ground: both sides were trying to make a point about the ground they claimed lay on their side of the border, and put their troops under orders not to violate the border (as they saw it) under any circumstances.

The game worked well, witht eh battlefield fitting nicely on a single 22 x 34-inch map. I made counters for it and tried it out, and eventually put it away and forgot about it. Over the years I’d remember it every now and then, but never felt the motivation to dust it off and publish it – that old hand-drawn map, dutifully colored with markers, is long gone.

And then earlier this year a submission came in pretty much out of nowhere, from a designer I had not heard from before. Konstantin Lubsky had crafted a set of 12 scenarios based on the fighting at Lake Khasan and Nomonhan. Developer John Stafford said they looked pretty good, so I gave the project the green light and the name Power of the East ("Vladivostok" rendered into English). That was my only contribution.

Nomonhan is another campaign I’d studied; at one time, we were going to publish a boxed Panzer Grenadier game on the topic and I sketched out dozens of scenarios for it. Earlier this year I strongly considered moving that game back onto the production schedule, but have since been gripped by a desire to actually deliver the games the customers want the most – which sort of squeezes out a topic like Nomonhan. We’ll probably re-visit both Lake Khasan and Nomonhan again someday, but that day is likely years away if it ever comes at all.

Konstantin has provided a very fine taste of fighting on the Manchurian borderlands. Power of the East is a fine little package, and I think you’ll enjoy the scenarios very much. Here’s a look at them:

Scenario One
Border Violation
31 July 1938
As tensions between the USSR and Japan grew throughout the 1930s, many considered a war between the two powers inevitable. The expectations edged closer to reality when Soviet border troops occupied the heights “Bezymyannaya” and “Zaozyornaya” in July 1938 and began to construct fortifications on them. The USSR, Japan and Manchuria (the latter occupied by Japan) all claimed this territory on the border. Therefore, on July 15th the Japanese ambassador to Moscow demanded the immediate withdrawal of Soviet troops from the heights, pretending the seizure violated Manchurian territory. When this expostulation was just as resolutely rejected by the Soviet government (which claimed the opposite to be true), the Japanese military decided to enforce their demand by the force of arms.

Note: This scenario uses boards from Road to Berlin and Infantry Attacks: August 1914, as well as pieces from Eastern Front, Guadalcanal, and Sinister Forces.

Conclusion
The first Japanese attack on July 29th had been repelled by a small group of Soviet border guards consisting of only 11 men (which were later reinforced by regular units). Nevertheless, two days later, on July 31st two full-strength Japanese infantry regiments attacked the disputed heights by night and took them in a valiant close assault. The bayonet charge as carried out in this action became a model for all other Japanese charges throughout World War II. Despite being successful this time due to darkness and the element of surprise, in many later cases this practice led to nothing other than high casualties for the attacker. The Soviet border troops, supported by regular army units, did everything they could, but were eventually overwhelmed and forced to retreat from the heights. Characteristic of the overall confusion, a reinforcement company of the Red Army arrived at the battlefield without any ammunition, as their commanding officer suspected the whole affair to be only a routine practice alarm.

Notes
Like all the Lake Khasan scenarios, this one features a strictly-defined battlefield dominated by the invisible but crucial international border. The Japanese have a huge numerical advantage to start plus better morale, but the small Soviet border outpost gets a steady stream of small reinforcement groups. The Soviets also have tanks while the Japanese are under burdensome victory conditions requiring them to completely clear the heights at any cost, so it’s a pretty fair fight waged in pitch darkness.

Scenario Two
“Maybe Comrade Marshal Doesn’t Understand…”
2 August 1938
With the heights now in enemy hands, the Soviets mulled their only two options: either back down under the force of arms and accept the Japanese fait accompli, or counterattack and restore the status quo. The Chief of the Soviet Far East Military District, Marshal Vasily Blücher, a former hero of the Russian Civil War, hesitated to react. He doubted the viability of the Soviet claims on the border territory, and the bad weather prohibited any air strikes to assist his troops. “Maybe Comrade Marshal just doesn’t understand the situation” opined Josef Stalin, when he heard of Blücher’s hesitation. This phrase expressed by the Great Leader often equaled a death sentence for the target general. Nevertheless, Blücher ordered an attack under the pressure from the Soviet high command. It did not save him from fatal consequences for uttering his doubts concerning the operation.

Note: This scenario uses boards from Infantry Attacks: August 1914 and Road to Berlin, and pieces from Eastern Front and Guadalcanal.

Conclusion
The precipitous and ill-organized Soviet attack on the heights ended in a bloody defeat without having achieved any objectives. Commanders failed to position their troops at their starting positions by the planned kickoff time for the offensive, and the artillery commander completely omitted pre-fight reconnaissance and fire planning for the heavy artillery due to time pressure. Heavy rains over the next few days prevented any fighting, so the Soviets spent the time reconsidering their course of action.

Notes
This is a massive clash of infantry, with the Soviets deploying wave after wave of unsupported foot soldiers against a large, dug-in Japanese defending force. Casualties mean nothing to either side, so it’s going to be a bloody fight no matter who wins this one.

Scenario Three
Zaozyornaya in Flames
6 August 1938
With the heights "Bezymyannaya" and "Zaozyornaya" in enemy hands for several days now and Tokyo about to declare victory, the whole affair threatened to turn into a great international disgrace for the Red Army and the Soviet Union. The heights had to be retaken at all costs with the next attack. This time the Soviets prepared themselves properly, assembling a huge armada of tanks, aircraft and heavy artillery for the main offensive on August 6th (coincidentally the ninth anniversary of the foundation of the Far East Military District). When the dense fog typical for this region finally lifted at 1700, a hail of lead and explosives rained down upon the Japanese positions - the decisive attack had begun.

Note: This scenario uses boards from Infantry Attacks: August 1914 and Road to Berlin, and pieces from Eastern Front and Guadalcanal.

Conclusion
The Soviet attack fared much better than before, as the quantitative and qualitative Soviet superiority in heavy arms finally told. The Russians overwhelmed the defenders and recaptured the heights, but the fighting continued for the next several days.

Notes
The Soviets are back, and this time they’ve bothered to scout the Japanese positions (not as many of the Japanese begin hidden) and have assigned tank, artillery and aircraft support to the huge waves of foot soldiers. Once again casualties mean nothing to either side as they brawl for the heights. This scenario may have the highest concentration of troops-per-hex in the Panzer Grenadier series.

Scenario Four
Punch Line with the Bayonet
7 August 1938
“Tanks and planes spoke their mighty words and the infantry put the punch line with the bayonet!” In such martial colors a Soviet song described the final fighting over Zaozyornaya. The Russians reported that after recapturing the height they repelled 20 Japanese counterattacks, and the fighting remained very fierce for the remainder of the week.

Note: This scenario uses a board from Road to Berlin and pieces from Eastern Front and Guadalcanal.

Conclusion
"In a heroic assault our glorious Red Army pushed the enemy back across the border. Not a single meter of our Soviet Fatherland will ever be yielded to an aggressor!" Soviet newspaper accounts of the battle ran along these lines, though writers did not mention the comparatively heavy Soviet casualties or the Red Army’s numerous deficiencies. In the aftermath, the Chief of the Soviet Far East Military District Marshal Blücher was imprisoned and executed, while the military district itself was fundamentally reorganized. Despite their defeat the Japanese leadership sought to challenge the Red Army only a short time later. This led to an even larger conflict, this time along the Mongolian border.

Notes
The Soviets are on the attack again, but this time they only have to take a small portion of the heights so they can declare a moral victory and end this little war. The Japanese need to push them off all of the heights. But the Japanese are getting a little less willing to shed blood for these hills in the middle of nowhere; for the first time in the Lake Khasan scenarios casualties actually matter, though the Japanese have to lose a huge chunk of their force to lose the game by that route.

Scenario Five
Nomonhan
28 May 1939
The next brew-up began in May 1939 with Mongolian and Manchurian cavalry skirmishing in the disputed border territory east of the Khalkhin Gol River near the village of Nomonhan. Both the Soviet Union and Japan subsequently sent regular troops to support their respective satellite. After some smaller clashes the Japanese high command recognized that a larger operation would be necessary to evict the enemy from the disputed area east of the river. They planned a company-sized diversionary attack to pin the enemy from the east, while the main attack from the north under Colonel Yamagata would destroy the Soviets. Meanwhile Lieutenant Colonel Azuma‘s reconnaissance group would seize the only bridge over the Khalkhin Gol River thus preventing the enemy escape. The Japanese expected an easy victory over the second-rate border infantry and Mongolian cavalry units. The Russians hoped to disappoint them.

Note: This scenario requires boards and pieces from Eastern Front and pieces from Guadalcanal.

Conclusion
The Soviets counterattacked Azuma’s force before it could reach the bridge with tanks and motorized rifle units, then surrounded and eliminated it with the help of artillery from the west bank of the river. The over-confident Japanese had neither artillery nor entrenching equipment, nor even enough ammunition with them. As a result, most of the men were wounded or killed, including Lieutenant Colonel Azuma. The Red Army had unceremoniously evicted the Japanese from the disputed territory, but it would not end there.

Notes
It’s pretty starkly open terrain, and the truck-borne Soviets have much greater mobility in this melee engagement. Japanese morale is superior, and they’re going to need that advantage. This is the first appearance of Mongolian cavalry, one of the cooler units in the Panzer Grenadier array of arms.

Scenario Six
Battle of Baintsagan
3 July 1939
After the destruction of Azuma’s force, only aerial attacks continued in the Nomonhan area throughout the whole of June. But the Soviet build-up continued west of the Khalkhin-Gol River. Not willing to admit defeat, the Japanese high command decided one time more to evict the Russians. Once again the main strike would come from the north, but this time west of the river thus violating the Mongolian border even from the Japanese point of view. Initially the several regiments of Major General Kobayashi’s task force easily overwhelmed the Mongolian cavalry screening units and successfully stormed the Baintsagan Hill on the west bank of Khalkhin Gol after crossing the river via a constructed pontoon bridge. The newly arrived Soviet commander, the later Hero of the Great Patriotic War, Georgy Zhukov threw all armored reserves available against the Japanese bridgehead from three sides without waiting for the infantry. A furious meeting engagement ensued.

Note: This scenario requires boards from Eastern Front and Road to Berlin and pieces from Eastern Front and Guadalcanal.

Conclusion
Once again the Japanese expected an easy victory and once again found themselves completely defeated by a well-led and determined Soviet force. The Soviet high command reacted immediately to the Japanese foray, sending the first tank units available into combat without any infantry support. The modern Soviet tanks proved far superior to anything the Japanese could throw against them, forcing the Japanese to retreat back across the river suffering heavy casualties. The single pontoon bridge also proved insufficient to support an offensive of such scale, and by July 5th the last Japanese soldiers were dislodged from the west bank.

Notes
The Mongolians are back, and this time they’ve brought a huge force of Soviet tanks with them. The tanks aren’t very good, but they don’t have to be since the Japanese have very little that can stop them - not even a city wall. Both sides field large forces, making for a pretty intense scenario as the Soviets try to stamp out the Japanese and capture the bridge, while the Japanese are looking to expand their bridgehead.

Scenario Seven
On the East Bank
5 July 1939
While the Battle of Baintsagan raged west of the Khalkhin Gol River, several regiments under Lieutenant General Yazuoka advanced on the east bank to drive the Soviets from there. The 2nd Battalion of the 28th Regiment, a highly-rated elite unit, formed one of the spearheads of the offensive. Surprisingly, during the first days of the advance the enemy resistance was extremely weak, as the Russians simply retreated without fighting. But things changed dramatically on July 5th when the battalion encountered deeply echeloned enemy defense positions. For the first time during the campaign the unit had to prove its real combat value.

Note: This scenario requires boards from Eastern Front and pieces from Eastern Front and Guadalcanal.

Conclusion
The battalion advanced slowly and managed to seize several forward positions, but they paid a price. The Russians defended tenaciously and the Japanese suffered heavy casualties, especially due to Soviet heavy artillery fire and tank-led counter-attacks. In the end, the Japanese abandoned the advance without achieving a breakthrough. Nevertheless, the Japanese commanders remained confident and the offensive would continue.

Notes
Once again, it’s the spirit of Bushido against a larger Soviet force backed by tanks and artillery, without much cover. And since the Red Army doesn’t have enough advantages, they have an extensive complex of entrenchments, too. The Japanese have to take at least some of these (or inflict massive casualties against few of their own) with no vehicles, no artillery and no aircraft.

Scenario Eight
Night Attack
7 July 1939
The 2/28 Battalion continued its advance against the Soviets on the east bank. After seizing the Hinomaru Heights, a hill very close to the Soviet positions, an opportunity for a night attack arose. But before the Japanese could pull it off, a Soviet counter-attack rambled toward the just-occupied hill.

Note: This scenario requires boards from Eastern Front and pieces from Eastern Front and Guadalcanal.

Conclusion
Japanese theoreticians considered a night-time close assault as the masterpiece of ground combat doctrine. In practice, it turned into a chaotic brawl in which friendly units lost contact and even shot at each other. The Soviets didn’t expect such a forceful strike and the first line of defense was taken. Nevertheless, the Japanese command proved unable to exploit this unexpected success and they stranded the single company that managed to break into the Soviet lines without support. When the Russians counterattacked again with combined arms, they forced the Japanese to fall back to their starting positions where they barely held the Hinomaru Heights.

Notes
It’s just what the title says: a night attack by a battalion from the Imperial Army’s crack 7th Infantry Division tries to use its better experience and cohesion to fight its way through a much larger Soviet force in the darkness. The burden of attack is on the Japanese and they have only high morale on their side, but the darkness just might negate some of the Soviet edge in numbers and tanks, and has rendered their artillery useless.

Scenario Nine
Panic
12 July 1939
A lull settled in after the heavy fighting of the first week of July, and no major operations occurred. Meanwhile the newly formed Soviet 82nd Rifle Division arrived from the Urals as reinforcements. Command ordered its 603rd Regiment, a unit which had received almost no combat training so far, to cross the Khalkhin Gol River and defend a ford from the east bank. When it came, the Japanese attack supported by artillery offered the green regiment its first combat action, with predictable results.

Note: This scenario requires boards and pieces from Eastern Front and pieces from Eastern Front, Guadalcanal and Sinister Forces.

Conclusion
The majority of the men of the 603rd, who had never carried a weapon before, fled in panic back across the river under the initial enemy pressure. Only the heroic efforts of the unit’s political Kommissar and its commanding officer restored the situation to something acceptable. Additionally, General Zhukov sent some of his staff security forces to prevent the men from fleeing; a method he would use widely later during the Great Patriotic War. Eventually, the regiment was pulled back to the west bank where it received fundamental combat training. This incident didn’t have any impact on the overall strategic situation, but it convinced the Japanese command that a victory on the east bank was still possible.

Notes
This time the Japanese morale advantage is even more profound, as the Soviets lack any semblance of enthusiasm. That is, except for the NKVD units, which are there to shoot at the Red Army, not at the Japanese. Even so there are a lot of Soviets, so the Japanese task is by no means easy. But it is an odd scenario with its enforced friendly-fire rules, which should make it pretty popular.

Scenario Ten
Last Attempt
23 July 1939
After a comparatively calm phase in the middle of July the Japanese command initiated yet another attempt to drive the Soviets from the east bank near Nomonhan. Two regiments of the 23rd Infantry Division attacked the enemy positions in a frontal assault intending to break through them and capture the only bridge across the river. This time they also planned a massive artillery barrage to silence the Soviet guns and ensure an overall success. Of course the Soviets had their own ideas about how to fight.

Note: This scenario requires boards from Eastern Front and pieces from Eastern Front, Road to Berlin, and Guadalcanal.

Conclusion
At Lake Khasan one year earlier the Japanese easily broke through a thin line of outnumbered border posts. Now at Nomonhan a deeply echeloned defense system with several lines of entrenchments and interlocking machine gun nests lay before them. Although the Japanese accumulated an impressive amount of artillery this time, the Soviets still had much more. The attack pushed the Soviets back at some points but the Japanese aborted the costly attack after two days without having reached the river. Again the Japanese casualties were very high and most of the artillery ammunition was exhausted. The Japanese didn’t recognize it at this point, but it was their last major offensive action of the campaign.

Notes
The Japanese are on the march in a large-scale infantry assault, against a pretty large defending force. For once the Japanese have tanks and artillery, but as the conclusion notes, not as much of either as the Red Army. But it’s going to be impossible for them to win without engaging the Soviets in a series of close assaults.

Scenario Eleven
Desert Blitzkrieg
20 August 1939
Twelve days before the German attack on Poland the world witnessed the first modern-style armored Blitzkrieg in history. Zhukov planned for frontal attacks to pin the enemy in the center, while armored columns broke through on both flanks and encircled the Japanese. Zhukov was not the military genius as described by Soviet history and propaganda, but an extremely rough and brutal man, even by Red Army standards, but one who understood the basics of infantry and mobile warfare. His hard-bitten approach and relentless zeal would later make him the highest ranking officer of the Red Army in the Great Patriotic War.

Note: This scenario requires boards from Eastern Front and Road to Berlin and pieces from Eastern Front and Guadalcanal.

Conclusion
Following their plan, the Soviets attacked along the whole front and their armored forces on the flanks immediately broke through the enemy lines. They caught the Japanese command completely off-guard who couldn’t figure out the direction of the main strikes. As usual, the Japanese soldiers offered hard-bitten resistance, but again they were ground down by the overwhelming Soviet tank and artillery fire. On several occasions only their close combat skills could preserve the Japanese central position from a complete collapse where the Soviet advance was less successful than on the flanks. Several days into the offensive the Soviet armored pincers coming from north and south met around Nomonhan thus completing the encirclement of the whole Japanese formation in the area, deciding the fate of the campaign.

Notes
Panzer Grenadier players claim they like small scenarios they can finish in an hour or two, but data from the awesome Panzer Grenadier Headquarters shows the ones they really play are huge and have many tanks in them. That would be this scenario: a massed, well-supported Soviet tank attack against a large Japanese infantry force.

Scenario Twelve
Samurai Stalingrad
28 August 1939
Several Japanese attempts to break through the encirclement failed, but despite their hopeless situation several Japanese formations in the cauldron continued to offer fanatic resistance. The last pocket of defense held Hill 739 in the center of the defense that the Russians named “Remizov Height” after a major who had been killed there during a previous battle. Since the defenders refused to give up, it had to be taken by force. But this time neither aircraft nor indirect artillery fire could support the attackers because of the possibility of hitting their own troops. Only after a savage fight that lasted throughout the whole day and into the evening hours were all the gutsy defenders eliminated and the Red Banner set atop the hill. Thus ended all organized Japanese resistance in the disputed area between Nomonhan and Khalkhin-Gol.

Note: This scenario requires boards from Eastern Front and Road to Berlin and pieces from Eastern Front and Guadalcanal.

Conclusion
The Khalkhin-Gol conflict remains almost unknown in the West; yet it is hard to overestimate its effects on world history. The “lessons” of Nomonhan led to a complete re-orientation of the Japanese expansion policy, shifting towards the southern direction, and Singapore, Dutch East Indies and Pearl Harbor where resistance was less stout. Their drubbing at Nomonhan also left the Japanese leadership reluctant to fulfill Hitler’s demands to attack the Soviet Union from the east. This allowed Stalin to divert Siberian elite troops from the Far East to the Battle of Moscow in the most critical moment of the war in winter 1941, thus contributing significantly toward the foundation for the Allied victory in the Second World War.

Notes
This one’s almost as big as the preceding scenario. The Soviets are on the attack, and while they don’t have the huge armored force on hand this time, they do bring along some flamethrower tanks. The Japanese have stratospheric morale, and they’re going to need it for they are badly outnumbered. It’s just the sort of battle any Japanese commander should love (or Soviet, either): the Soviets only win by wiping out the Japanese.

And that makes a dozen scenarios for Power in the East

Mike Bennighof is president of Avalanche Press and holds a doctorate in history from Emory University. A Fulbright Scholar and award-winning journalist, he has published over 100 books, games and articles on historical subjects. He lives in Birmingham, Alabama with his wife, three children and his dog, Leopold.