One of the funny things is that the players seem to regard 1942 as the end of the world. Seriously, the game ends in Jan 1946. That's 4 years...
Where do you get these numbers? Seriously, mountain troops require 1 activation tech (which takes ~90 days to research), 1 light art miniaturisation tech (which is a one-time tech and also could be researched quickly) and mountain warfare tech, which is the only repeatable tech we would have to research (and our practical and theory values are good). Their building time is high, but again - we have a very high infantry practical. I'm not saying that we must get MTNs, but 2 years seems excessive.
You realise that even now NAVs have a higher sea attack than our CAGs, right?
Yes, the Guangxi Clique has been our ally since 1939. You are right when you say that the ROC's reconquests can be quite dangerous for us, because they increase their income significantly. The nationalists and their warlord allies lost many divisions in the Wuhan Pocket (that was in August-December 1940), but unfortunately, we were still bogged down in the western mountains and the Chinese have largely rebuilt their army since then. Generally speaking, the enemy relies on the local concentration of force - we do not have a large reserve and cannot shift many divisions from one area to an another one without losing ground somewhere, so every time we make progress in one place, the Chinese respond by making the counter-attack somewhere else. By reconquering provinces they also steal some of our supplies and disrupt our supply network by demolishing infrastructure, which buys them time. In central and western China terrain is bad almost everywhere, so movement is slow and casualties are high.To be clear, Guanxi is at war with China and is a Japanese ally? I'd have to load up my version of hoi3 to be sure, but I'd be a bit worried about the ICs sitting on that front line. Guanxi has a much higher density of ICs then China proper. You've made some very good progress in China but I'm perplexed at why the nationalists don't seem to have that many divisions??
All attempts at assaulting the communist mountain fortresses have been unsuccessful so far. Even if they face supply problems, a combination of forts, rivers and mountain is extremely hard to break.Very unfortunate to see the communists still in action, their divisions are good. I guess you no longer have the supply slack to launch an offensive at commie china?
All attempts at assaulting the communist mountain fortresses have been unsuccessful so far. Even if they face supply problems, a combination of forts, rivers and mountain is extremely hard to break.
You are a funny guy. We have an almost non-existent practical in twin-engine aircraft production and yet you think that investment in them is worthwhile, while the base build time for MTNs is 150 days and we have 20 infantry practical... Anyway, it all depends on the arguments you make in the gameplay thread, so I won't debate it further here. I will leave that for the players .
It's the Army's choice. However, specialists are not meant to be cheap and should not be cost-effective everywhere. That's why they are fielded in small numbers IRL. Nominal ICdays cost is actually not that high for MTNs and keep in mind that in supply-constrained areas you might not be able to afford double the number of divs, especially when you consider the fact that INF+ART divs consume more supplies (and ENGs consume fuel). However, I can be fine with either of your decisions, but ATM it's 50:50 in the IJA... The IJN can only give advice here.Lets compare a mnt with a div, a mnt has 0.25 and 0.5 more tough/def than inf, also has less penalties and more boni in mountain, but costs the double in IC and LS, lets see what do I want? units with a marginal advantage in mountain or double the number of infantry where I can attach art/eng to, for me the inf is a clear winner.
Some historians say that communists actually did little during the first years of war, when their assistance was needed the most. The nationalists and the communists sometimes felt more threatened by each other than by the Japanese .It's a shame in HPP that the commies don't fight the Japs a bit harder than they do, since in RL the communists did the bulk of the fighting, still thank god it's 'balenced' in HPP and with your additions. Not played the SU with them yet, but when I do I'll let you know how I got my arse and chair handed to me!
*I have to ask the players to be more careful about stating "facts" or ideas. For example, how can Admiral Yamamoto not know that we have quite modern LB doctrines? In fact, one of LB doctrine tech is currently being researched and is visible in the latest update!
How can Surt not know that the invasion of the USA was deemed infeasible some time ago?
Also, you must all know that even with all focus put on single-engine aircraft, NAVs have a bit higher Sea Attack than CAGs and Medium Bombers have 2,5x (!) higher Soft Attack than Light Bombers ATM. Twin-engine aircraft also have much higher range. Surely you have played HPP? Please be more careful next time, because I don't want to meddle in your discussions too much and demagogic arguments aren't convincing to the Emperor! If you have questions, you can ask them by PM or put a formal request in this thread. I will answer them if I can.
I post links to SCs of tech screens from time to time... Perfect memory is not required, but if you state sth, then it's good to back it up by facts. If you say that sth is useless or worthless, then please say WHY do you that's the case, because otherwise the argument itself is worthless in my book. BTW LB techs have been a part of the research plans since 1936.
I didn't veto the invasion of Panama/the USA, but unless we want to invade Mexico or do sth similar, then Panama is outside of our reach. This was mentioned several times.
I've played HPP lots of times, but MB's have never had my love as they are too expensive.
I don't think we should bother with Panama it would be nice if we take it, but other than a cheeky gain I doubt it will hugely impact results and Mexico would just be too far. Ironically Mountain troops would be perfect there!