I used to be able to take all of China (not Sinkiang or Tibet, but all the rest) usually by the end of 1938, the very end.
. . .
Rebels? I use Militia and Cavalry mostly and let the AI handle the ops...
This last time, it took me until April 1939. It felt like forever - and that was just to conquer Nationalist China and puppet Xibei San Ma. Do you take Mongolia, Sinkiang, Yunan, and the Clique, too? In that time frame? Wow.
How do give AI control over a single corps or unit?
The only thing I can add is that you should stagger your invasions. Let there be 2-3 weeks in between landings. That will maximize AI confusion and give you the best results, since the AI is seriously handicapped when it has to deal with more than 1 front.
Yes, that's what I've been trying: Let China take Manchuko (see Secret Master's tactic below), then retake it. My plan basically called for waiting until Manchuko fell and until the three Chinas had consolidated their forces along the Korean border. Once they begin attacking me in earnest, I defend while launching a second envelopment attack from the port at Dagu. I land a corps for Marines, followed by four corps of infantry. They basically cut across Shanxi and trap the joint army in Manchuko. Then I close the vise.
Oddly enough, what happened in my current game is that I trapped the entire Joint Chinese army in Manchuko. When Manchuko fell, all the units - all three nations units - disappeared. All that was left were a few Nationalist Chinese Headquarters units, which I took out quickly.
Woohoo, I thought, I
just destroyed China!
Think again. A couple of days later, a HUGE stack of Communist Chinese units appears on their capital. Suddenly, an entire army of Nationalist Chinese appeared coming up from the south. Sigh. By now, my "line" was slanting from Southwest to Northeast. I made my next two landings at Quindao and Shanghai at four week intervals, but by then my line had taken on this strange S shape that wasted my position and stretched my units to maximum thinness. I also let units from the Xibei San Ma army get behind mine (it's annoying how I cannot enter a region because the infrastructure is too low, but then can cross it easily) and out flank me.
Not an efficient performance at all.
I wouldn't worry too much about how long it takes. As long as the majority of China is secured before you either attack the USA or attack the Allies, you should be fine. In fact, doing it too quickly under FTM means that your laws revert back to peacetime configuration... right when it might be nice to start several CV and CAG projects.
On the plus side, if you can annex most of the warlords by 1938/39, that does start the clock on nationalism. If you intend to go the distance with the USA and/or the Allies, having lower revolt risk tied to nationalism in China would be nice.
I think the fastest I've pulled it off is 39, but I'm not very good at invading China. My best strategy is one that involves sacrificing Manchukuo so I can pocket and destroy the combined armies of China in Manchuria (along the Yalu river) via amphibious assaults while they try in vain to push into Korea. But while that strategy is very successful, it is also time intensive. The low infrastructure in Manchuria means it takes forever to clean up the damn pocket, even when they are out of supply.
Apparently, I suck at fighting in China, too. But there's a thought I hadn't considered: delaying the war for my own purposes.
You're spot on about the end of the war. As soon as I took China, I lost all the benefits of war, and my consumer goods shot through the roof. I should have taken more time. Maybe I could declare war on the Clique . . .
I have to say: I enjoy your "sacrifice Manchuko" strategy. When it is finally complete, my IC goes through the roof (I think I have a wartime IC of like 200+ on Normal without building any IC) and so does my Leadership. I'm currently pulling in 26 research projects at once, which allows me for some my oddities - like researching all of particular tech group (like all four carrier techs).
One thing I found strange: I had ten active spies working in Nationalist China with the goal of lowering National Unity. It didn't do diddly. I don't think it made NC any easier to take at all. I'm beginning to think that Intelligence is once screen I can avoid for how effective it is (well, after I get the 10 spies in my own country).
Another thing I can't figure out is how to "influence" another country, like the USA. I keep reading that people can influence the USA in their nations direction, but I've never found a button or screen that allows me to raise my "influence" with any other country.