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unmerged(11319)

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Oct 17, 2002
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Hello all

I just installed Arma and started a Japanese Campaign (starting in 1936). As in HoI2 vanilla I went on and lauched 9 series of 5 1936 infantry without brigades. Usually I overcome China by 1939 with this strategy in vanilla but in Arma, it doesn't seem to work, even on easy settings, Nationalist China fields huge stacks of armies (20+), and this campaign is turning into a stalemate that might last forever. Can anyone give me some advices or tips ?

thx in advance
 
It's been a long time since I've last conducted a Japan vs China campaign, but I'll tell you what I know. It's a good idea to land on the Chinese coast, not far from Nanjing. While you push from the north you should land in the selected province with a good amount of divisions (1-2 dozens for a start) and rush toward Nanjing and the urban areas near it. Also capture all nearby areas that have lots of industry. This way you'll deal a huge blow to the Nationalist Chinese economy and if the war does stalemate you'll be able to break it sooner. After capturing what you can, I suggest you then push northwest to link up with your northern army group, trying to encircle some coastal divisions meanwhile. Do not forget to keep bombing Chinese troops in the south to make your advance easier. Also, when fighting on the coast, use shore bombardment to make things easier for yourself - it counts quite a lot when the battle is otherwise balanced. You have a vast naval superiority to do this.
 
when I played japan, i just embarked in all provinces where possible and started going inland. soon they wanted to make a deal. (i took nanjing and surrounding provinces)
The bad thing is that they declare war on you as soon as peace teathry expires.
 
In short: Encircle and destory, rince and repeat.

If you're only pushing them back you're in for trouble, even though you're wining battles your enemy is effectively getting stronger while you're getting weaker.

You have to make large encirlements and destroy their forces otherwise you'll fall behind the pace they can replenish their forces and field new units.

I used to play the game as italy and ally with just japan locking germany out of the new world order (usually annex them in 1939). I run a large italian campaign in china around late '36 to early '39 usually taking out most of china with my italian troops. Italy is much weaker than Japan early on but they can take china with some help from japanese AI. Encircle and destroy. And once you have all that land you can trade it back to your ally in exchange for technology etc. :)
 
Allying with some chinese warlords can't hurt either. In HoI2 DD I manage to overcome Nationalist China in just few months after that ''Marco Polo Bridge'' event. I remember that I didn't build any additional troops, just upgrade the existing ones, as I was was interested in developing further the navy and air force.
 
alliance with china minors could help a lot.
double profit - you'll get some divisions and NatChina will not

see my AAR for example of diplomacy
 
I have done the following three times. I start by encircling everything north of Yucheng - Anyang - Changzhi. If you concentrate your forces to the north, it is an easy objective because China needs a lot of divisions to cover their coastal provinces. I do not know if it makes a difference to the AI, but I keep a lot of divisions in southern Manchukuo before the war. This is under the assumption that China will not notice them when they are not directly bordering one of their provinces, so they will not put a lot of divisions to the north. Thus, you should heavily outnumber them to the north when war breaks out. Do not forget about the TACs, they can destroy quite a few divisions by themselves over the course of the campaign. The trick is to move as quickly as possible downwards from the west and east at the same time but do not attack the center. Ideally take Yucheng amphibiously to trap more divisions, but you should still be able to encircle a few divisions otherwise. In general, use all your garrisons offensively when you do not need them to reduce TC. By that, I mean that garrisons can easily hold Yucheng, since it is behind a river. Thus, you releave your mobile units to stretch the spearhead further. I actually built several garrisons before the war. They are cheaper to produce and can help to hold the line. I also built a small number of ART. It is true that the infantry moves slower that way, but you can deploy INF-ART near coastal provinces only and move them by sea once in a while. Then they will always see action, and it will give them a bit of extra punch.

When you have taken the north, the river is fairly easy to defend and China will have moved a lot of units up to keep you from crossing the river. If you have time, take Xi'an, but do not move further than that, you just need a bridgehead across the river for later. If the river is too heavily defended, stay behind the river. Hold the river with a few garrisons and infantry and send at least half of your units to take Nanjing amphibiously. Now that the bulk of the chinese are in the north, you will hopefully not be bogged down in Nanjing. When you reach Nanjing, analyze the situation. If you are not overwhelmed, you can attempt to link up Xi'an and Nanjing and encircle everything towards the coast. If it seems hard, start by making some smaller encirclements to gain local superiority. If it fails, just move your focus somewhere else; leave a token defence in Nanjing and instead amphibiously assault towards the south. Once you accomplish a major encirclement, you should focus on taking Chongqing. If you can occupy Chongqing, the north and the Nanjing area, the chinese TC will be driven so low (due to low IC) that you should be able to win against larger numbers.