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Japan strategy: rule the pacific?

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bbasgen

bbasgen

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I've been away from HoI3 for probably a year or so. Installed ftm and tried Japan. I'm at 2/1942, and planning to restart the game: Germany lost the netherlands and has been barely able to establish a static front, while the Soviets are starting to eat up Eastern Europe. Their early demise is problematic, so I'm going to reset and try something different.

One of my questions is the war goal "rule the pacific". Do I have to capture the USA west coast to achieve that? I remember doing that once or twice in HoI2, but always thought it was gamey and figured it would be impossible in HoI3.

For my restart, I'm thinking that I will join the Axis asap as that might help Germany a little. I'm also thinking that I need to enter the war against the Allies not on my time table, but I need to do it the moment Germany is in trouble, wether through an amphib landing or trouble with the Soviets.

Military wise, I'm going to focus more on some ASW capability (in addition to CV's of course), build out a little more transports and merchants, and stage a pretty wide-scale amphib assault on the Dutch East Indies the moment I enter the war. It seems to make sense to focus on a war goal that I can achieve relatively early, and then go on to take the US islands as a defensive move rather than a realistic one to actually achieve a war goal with. I just can't imagine holding several US ports against US land forces on their own territory!
 
Yes, Dutch Indies are Nr.1 on list, they have lots of oil which Japan needs.
Go to war after France is defeated, else they may send fleet to defeat you.

Build LOTS of convoy ships, as AI is pretty good at sinking your convoys.
Build only infantry and marines with appropriate techs for land units, later you can throw in some tanks, but upgraded Japanese infantry is very resistant against armor (too much for my liking).
For ships, build CVs and CL or DD.

Win. AI manages it's fleets amazingly bad.
 
If you carve a bloody path into the Allies from the start, the way you should have, after taking out China then Germany can survive. But since you didn't join the Axis alliance, there is no one to take the pressure off the Germans and the UK can focus all of its attentions on Germany. You left your ally to hang in the wind and now you don't have an ally. Certainly makes sense to me. :D
 
bbasgen said:
One of my questions is the war goal "rule the pacific". Do I have to capture the USA west coast to achieve that? I remember doing that once or twice in HoI2, but always thought it was gamey and figured it would be impossible in HoI3.
Click to expand...

Up through FtM 3.05, that War Goal will cause the game to crash when it executes, so you can't use it anyway.

Aside from that issue, none of the War Goals require you to do anything special. The country you're targeting just has to surrender as if you were going to simply conquer them.
 
Go to war after France is defeated, else they may send fleet to defeat you.
Click to expand...

Against the AI, I join WW2 always from the start. IMO it's the best time to deal with the RN since US won't join before some years and you'll get combat experience.
 
As Japan, you might as well war as fast as you can. Don't wait for France to fall. Take the Dutch East Indies and British possesions fast. Then move on to India but leave Rangoon until the end to give the brits a "safe harbor" to base thier fleets out of. Set a SAG task force in the Straight of Singapore after you secure Singapore. Give the SAG air cover with about four interceptors on air superiority and a couple of NAV bombers on naval strike. The brits will send fleet after fleet through there. Use a carrier fleet or two to chase down and chew up the remnants that pass through the straight. Once you have sent most of the RN to the bottom of the sea, take 20 or 30 divisions and station them in France after they capitulate and do Sealion yourself.

Have a back up SAG for that one you put in the Singapore Straight. It will take some damage. But, if you do it right, it pays big dividends with few losses. I think I lost maybe 4 ships total in my last game.
 
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The other reason not to start your invasion of India anywhere near Rangoon is that you dont want your supply system in China to link up to your supply system in India anytime soon. The poor infrastructure link between the two will cause you problems with supply especially if you use too many troops in India. 15 or 20 divisions is plenty to take it over in a reasonable amount of time.
 
I suppose if I had one feature request for HOI3 it would be to make overseas supply depots theater specific. Meaning each theater you create gets its own supply depot. But I know I an wasting my breath asking for it.
 
Good to know that the war goal is broken, next time I DOW on the USA I won't use it!

I have mixed feelings about joining the war at the outset, only because I wonder if it gives Japan too much of an advantage. I always try to use house rules to make the game a bit more challenging. Now, perhaps a counter-balance to joining WW2 at the start is joining the war against the Soviets when Germany makes the DOW? After all, that is a pretty tough front for Japan to manage... and then throw in the US after that could be quite interesting. :)

Mike1968 said:
The other reason not to start your invasion of India anywhere near Rangoon is that you dont want your supply system in China to link up to your supply system in India anytime soon. The poor infrastructure link between the two will cause you problems with supply especially if you use too many troops in India. 15 or 20 divisions is plenty to take it over in a reasonable amount of time.
Click to expand...

I remember a feature that came out in Semper Fi to avoid this issue: the feature was to setup a land-based supply convoy even when you have a land route. I don't know if I've ever used it, but I recall the Dev Diary example for North Africa supply through the middle east being problematic, so a route from Greece to Alexandra for example could really help. It should be as simple as a manual convoy setup.

On the subject of India, I'm curious: have people been successful diving into India as Japan. I imagine this would be quite challenging particularly if you are engaged with the USSR at the same time.
 
India's usually undefended. I always send an army of 25 MTN divisions through Burma and they roll up India fairly quickly. AI UK isnt very good at manage multiple theaters.
 
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