This is very much an Against The Odds! situation: The Nationalists are well-armed with air support, artillery, road mobility, and tanks. The Communists also mobilized as many as five million peasants to help move supplies. The result was an enormous battle of annihilation that involved over half a million fighters on each side. The Communist leadership decided the time had come to move into central China, so they targeted the area around the strategically crucial city of Xuzhou, about halfway between Beijing (Peking) and Nanjing (Nanking). By November, 1948, the Nationalists had suffered severe reverses in Manchuria and the north. Both sides raced to seize cities and rail lines in China formerly held by the Japanese. In 1946, the eight-year-long truce between Nationalists and Communists that had held together during the War of Resistance against Japan finally broke down. It was the culmination of 20 years of on-again-off-again civil war between the Nationalists and the Communists. This showdown determined that the Nationalist forces of Jiang Jieshi (Chiang Kai-Shek) would be driven from the mainland into exile on Taiwan. Red Dragon, Blue Dragon: The Huaihai 1948-49 is an operational-level game about the largest and most decisive battle of the Chinese Civil War: the Battle of the Huai-Hai.
