RESOURCES
Even though I thought I had studied Japan's starting position in depth I realized in the first session that I had failed to take proper account of Japan's resource shortages. Japan has a shortfall in every resource category. I knew, going into the game, my resources and economy was going to be tight- I just hadn't realized how tight.
Energy could be purchased from Germany. Metal could be shipped in from various South American countries, as could oil. That left rare materials. Normally, in single player, these could be obtained from the United States.
In this particular MP game, however, the U.S. player was not kindly disposed to selling me rares. It has been quite a long time since those first early sessions so I cannot recall the exact circumstances but I believe that the United States either cancelled all of Japan's initial trades that were already ongoing when the scenario started, or they simply refused to sell me any more resources.
In any case I recall being very upset about Japan's rare materials shortage. Without the United States Japan would have to get her rares from the world market. MP is again different from SP. In SP I'd probably be able to manage adequately with regards to the rare situation. But in MP there was also an Italian and German player who had been put under economic embargo by the Western Democracies and the Soviet Union. Japan found itself bidding against friendly Axis powers. The rare maket in AI controlled minors dried up astonishingly quickly.
The danger this represented to Japan cannot be overstated. Germany has the technology and the ICs to partially make up for their shortfall by building Oil and Rare synth plants. Japan's overstressed industries simply cannot afford that. I was hemorrhaging rare materials at such a frightful rate that I considered going to war with the Netherlands in 1938 in order to seize the Dutch East Indies.
Two factors stayed my hand.
1) Germany can get a lot of their rares from the Dutch. Going to war against the Dutch to seize the DEI would be like robbing Peter to pay Paul. Japan might profit from such a war but it would leave the leader of the Axis faction much weaker. Such a war, therefore, could be counter productive.
2) Even if I was willing to place my interests ahead of Germany's, where was I going to get the forces to invade the DEI? Every unit I had was already accounted for. I believed that the AI had unlimited range for their ships which meant I would have to garrison the beaches of the resource rich islands. I simply didn't have enough units to attack China, guard Manchuria and the Home Islands, while at the same time subjugating the DEI.
I eventually devised a plan that I thought would help me deal with my rare shortfall. There were significant risks in employing that particular strategy but my back was against the wall. And there was no way to tell whether my plan would work right away. It would only bear fruit sometime in 1939 or later, so I'll leave the details of the arrangement for future updates when they become relevant.
INDUSTRY
Japan's economy was mainly divided between Consumer Goods, Supplies, and Production. I had a handful of ICs in reinforcements, almost nothing in repairs, and actually nothing in upgrades.
As I mentioned before, the bulk of my production was tied up in land units. But I also started a run of lvl II TACS, a 1x99 run of airbases, and a run of infrastructure in Tokyo (25 ICs, 13 rares, 23 energy, 17 metal, and it was a plains province to boot) at regular speed.
Of course, if my rare situation deteriorated this generous production run would have to be cut to the bone. My preference, when I am running out of resources, is to place ICs into "empty" production, usually in the repair slider. For example, lets say the repair slider only needs 2ICs and I would actually place 12 ICs there. That way my economy wouldn't use all the resources that it would at full blast. I do this because I dislike having my IC level fluctuate wildly as sections of the economy blink on and off like Christmas lights. By doing this I can avoid having serial build bonuses wiped out.
MILITARY REORGANIZATION AND DEFENSE
All the garrisons were recalled form the far flung Pacific islands and brought closer to home. This included Truk, which has a lvl 10 naval base. I would have liked to have kept some defenses there but I was already stretched to the limit.
A garrison or 1918 infantry was allocated to each beach province in Japan, except for Tokyo which received two.
Similar defenses were allocated to the Russian/Mongolian border in Mengkukuo, Manchuria, and Korea. Most of these units were infantry/militia. If Russia attacked I didn't want garrisons there that would disband upon retreat. The forces would be a mixture of Japanese, and Japanese puppet troops. When/if my puppets produced more units they would also beef up the defenses along those borders.
The remaining garrison units in my possession would guard the beaches on what I like to call my Outer Ring of defenses. This area includes the islands closest to Japan, and the beaches on the Asian mainland. This will eventually include the beaches I conquer from China.
Let me step aside and briefly explain my philosophy of beach defenses. On the surface it might appear that my initial beach defenses were rather extravagant. I disagree. Since I did not know the intentions of the UK, I thought I had to assume there was a good possibility that the Allies could invite China into their alliance. The seas around Japan and China would then become a battleground.
A level I militia unit at 1 strength can successfully invade an undefended beach. I was apprehensive that if the UK did attack Japan it could land a fast strike force of armor and motorized behind my lines on undefended Chinese beaches and then rush inland to meet the Chinese, cutting off a large segment of my army while the Royal Navy prevented me from sending transports to extricate my trapped armies.
By guarding my beaches it ensures that a potential foe will have to employ a military force amounting to more than Gomer Pyle. A beach defense, even one consisting of a single unit, forces potential enemies to undertake a far more substantial operation.
First, if the UK did attack, I hoped my beach defenses would be able to hold ( I placed all of them on VoV), until the Combined Fleet sortied to disrupt the enemy transports.
Second, I hoped that my enemies would be smart enough to scout my beaches before they decided to declare war. If they had done so I hope they would have realized "Hey, this guy is defending ALL of his beaches. No point in attacking him!" I hoped that by providing adequate defenses I could actually deter a conflict before it had even started. The same rationale applied to the defenses I was assembling in Manchuria. If the Soviet or British player saw that they couldn't just march in unopposed and exploit any huge gaps in my lines, then it might force them to reconsider attacking me at all.
The exact composition of my fleets is still classified. Suffice it to say that I engaged in a major reorganization of my naval tasks forces at the start of the first session.
I can tell you that I created a number of small fleets, centered around a single heavy cruiser. I placed these fleets on permanent patrol in single sea provinces off the Chinese coast. Their mission was to sink any and all convoys.
In the next update I will (finally!) get around to describing my initial offensive operations.
China Blockade and Outer Defenses