800 Heroes: Defense of Sihang Warehouse
800 Heroes: Defense of Sihang Warehouse Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Historical Background
Sihang Warehouse (or the Warehouse of the four banks, also known as the Chinese Mint-Godown) was a six-story concrete building warehouse built by four Chinese Banks in Shanghai at the north-western edge of New Lese Bridge, just north of Suzhou River. The Kuomintang army was deployed in the Bunker west of the warehouse, Bank of Communications on the left and North Tibet Road on the right. October 27th, the Japanese 3rd Division approached the Sihang Warehouse but was forced to quickly retreat. The defenders of the 1st Battalion was waiting for them... The Japanese attack in the afternoon successfully dislodged the Chinese 3rd company from their position but they were finally pushed back by the Grenades of the Chinese defenders.
Although the Japanese sent their bombers to support the attack on October 28th, they did not bomb the Chinese defenders in Sihang Warehouse for fear of targeting the Gas Company in the concession area. And the four Japanese infantry guns, deployed in the Northwest, could not penetrate the three meter thick walls.
On October 29th, the Japanese sent five tankettes to reach and blockade the main road north of Sihang Warehouse, but the Chinese defenders repelled the attack with grenades and MG fires. Two tankettes were destroyed at the gates of the warehouse. In the evening, Yang Huimin, a young girl scout, swam across the river to deliver a Chinese National flag. The exploit raised high the morale of the Chinese defenders.
On October 30th, the Japanese attackers were beginning to concentrate their heavy weapons to fire at the Warehouse, but the lack of high ground prevented them to suppress the Chinese defenses (the warehouse was the highest building there).
On 31th October, Lieutenant Colonel Xie Jinyuan was ordered to attempt a breakout to reach the British-American concession. The remnants of the Chinese defenders retreated on 1st November, marking the end of the heroic six days defense. Chinese losses were less than 70, around 300 Japanese attackers were killed in the action.
Map
The map depicts ten Areas (from A to J). The red circles show the Japanese set-up areas, the blue circles show the Chinese set-up areas. The white circle show the British American concession area. Area A is the Headquarter of the Japanese Army and Area G is the headquarter of the Chinese Army. If Area E, F, G are attacked by other areas, the defense strength of the Chinese Combat Units (only) are increased by +1 or +2. If the combat units are attacked within the same areas, the defensive bonus is ignored.
Counters
Red background counters are Japanese units, blue background counters are Chinese units.
The front side represents the full strength unit, the back side represents the reduced strength unit.
The dots around the counters represent the Action Points of the units.
Counter diagram labels: Defensive strength; Reduced unit; Turn of arrival; Action point; Special capability; Combat bonus.
1.0 Set up
Place the turn marker on the first box of the Turn Record Track. Set up the units (Chinese first) without any number on its upper right corner in their respective set up area (Blue areas for Chinese, Red areas for Japanese). Maximum number of combat units per area is four.
The edge with the maximum Action Points should be facing the owning player.
2.0 Sequence of Play
- Each player rolls a die. The player with the highest result get the initiative.
- The players act alternatively. They can choose to perform an action or pass. Then the other player takes his turn. This repeats until the Turn ends when either both players have used all the Action Points of all their units or both players have choose to pass consecutively.
- At the end of the turn:
- all units are rotated back (the edge with the maximum Action Points should be facing the owning player).
- Place Japanese reinforcements due to arrive on next turn in area A or B.
- Advance the Turn marker to next turn (one turn is one day).
3.0 Actions
- The player can choose to activate from 1 to 3 friendly units in one area to spend one Action Point.
- By spending 1 Action point, the activated unit can moving to an adjacent area OR attacking an enemy unit in the same or adjacent area.
- The activated units must perform the same action (same move or attacking same unit).
- After performing the action, the counter is rotated clockwise 90 degree to reduce the available Action point allowance by one. Should there be no Action Points left (i.e. the side pointing to the owning player has no dot), then that combat unit can't be activated again in that turn. Exception: see 4.0
3.1 Movement
- The player can choose friendly units (up to 3 units) in an area to spend one Action Point to move to an adjacent area.
- Stacking limit (i.e. the sum of Chinese plus Japanese units in an area) is 4 units and must be respected at any time.
- Diagonal movement is not allowed (example: from C to D or from B to E).
- To enter an area occupied by Chinese Units, the number of Japanese Units in this area at the end of the move must be equal or greater than the number of Chinese Units. (Exception: This limitation does not apply to tanks). This limitation does not apply to Chinese units.
- Only Infantry and Machine Gun units can enter Area G (the warehouse). Both sides can only enter Area I (the bridge) at Turn 6.
3.2 Attack
- The player can choose friendly units (up to 3 units of the same type) in an area to spend one Action Point to attack an enemy unit in the same or adjacent area.
- Diagonal Attack is not possible.
- The attacking player chooses an enemy unit to be attacked and then roll two dice and add any relevant modifiers.
- If the result is equal or greater than the targeted unit's defensive strength, the attack is successful:
- the targeted unit must spend 1 action point to retreat to an adjacent area which is closer to its headquarter (area A for the Japanese, G for the Chinese).
- If there is any enemy unit in this area, or the targeted unit is already in his headquarter area, or there is already 4 units in this area, the targeted unit can not retreat and have to take a step loss (the player flip the unit on its reduced side). If the unit is already on its reduced side, it is eliminated.
- If the result is lower than the targeted unit's defensive strength, the attack has no effect.
- The combat modifiers are:
- +1 for each attacking unit after the first one.
- +3 if two tanks units are attacking.
- -X depending of the defensive value of the area if the targeted unit is a Chinese unit and if the attack is launched from an adjacent area.
4.0 Special capabilities
- Lieutenant Colonel Xie Jinyuan: he can use his Action points for one unit of the same or adjacent area to conduct an action.
- Example: the Machine gun unit in area D has spent all his Action points and can't be activated by itself. Lieutenant Colonel Xie Jinyuan who is in an adjacent area can spend one Action point to activate the Machine gun unit.
- Machinegun: Machinegun units can re-roll the dice once when attacking if they don't hit with the first roll.
- Mortars: Mortars unit enters the game in Turn 2 as Japanese reinforcement. It can be used to attack all the enemies in an adjacent area. It can not attack in his own area.
- Tanks: Tanks enter the game in Turn 3 as Japanese reinforcement. An attack by a tank will modify the Attack Strength by +1, +3 if two tanks units are attacking. A moving Japanese Tank unit is not subject to the restrictions that the Japanese Units moving into area occupied by any Chinese units must be equal or greater than the number of Chinese Units in that area. Tanks can spend two Action points in the same activation to move and fire or fire and move. On their first turn, tanks can use only 2 Action points.
- Artillery: Artillery unit enters the game in Turn 4 as Japanese reinforcement. An artillery attack will modify the Attack Strength by +2. It can be used to attack all the enemies in an adjacent area or an area two areas away. It can not attack in its own area.
5.0 Special counters
- Grenade: Can be used twice in a Turn. It can be used to attack all the enemies in an area occupied by a Chinese unit.
- Chinese National Flag: Chinese Player can use the Chinese National Flag once per turn starting from 30th October (Turn 4). Using the Chinese National Flag count as conducting an action and will recover one Action Point for all the surviving Chinese Units.
6.0 Victory Conditions
The Chinese Player must hold the Sihang Warehouse (i.e. there must be no Japanese unit in Area G) from Turn 1 to Turn 5 and must have at least two units in the British American concession area (Area J) to win the game. Otherwise, the Japanese player is the winner.