My Stupid Allies...

[Australiana]

I'm playing as Germany, and I'm beginning to wonder what kind of strategy my Italian & Japanese allies are following exactly. I prefer to take control of the armies of my smaller allies (Finland, Hungary, Romania, etc) while leaving Italy & Japan to do their own thing, but it requires no brilliant piece of deduction to ascertain that this is the height of folly. The Italians always screw it up, and I have to take over their army anyway, however, I expect more of Japan.
The mighty Japanese army, still deeply embroiled in their war with China (and not faring too well I might add) then do the next most sensible thing & declare war upon the US! So, not only do they make the most illogical decision at the most inopportune time, they then, in their wisdom, decide to leave the Japanese mainland completely undefended and are now being invaded by the Dutch, which is too absurd to even comment upon. So, at this point I have two choices: 1) Take control of the Japanese forces myself and fight their war for them, which in turn makes it one almighty micromanagement headache. Or, 2) Leave them to their own devices and watch the game degenerate into one massive clusterf**k, which, after having painstakingly considered every decision I make to ensure that I am in the best possible position to win this thing, I'm not terribly inclined to do.
I love this game, and sing it's praises to all who will listen, but it needs a bit of polish in a few spots.

Gripe over. Or is it?

[Kannon]

Welcome to Axis, the club of incompetent Saturday morning cartoon villains.
Other than Japan not garrisoning their beaches everything seems awright. (neither do for the most part, I just keep a minor strike force on the mainland to react)

[Australiana]

Welcome to Axis, the club of incompetent Saturday morning cartoon villains.
Other than Japan not garrisoning their beaches everything seems awright. (neither do for the most part, I just keep a minor strike force on the mainland to react)

Y'know, I can just see Tojo standing victorious over a conquered China then peering back over his shoulder to see the 'mighty' Dutch army running rampant on the Japanese mainland and going 'ummm...'

But you're quite right; Other than this, everything does seem alright.

[Faulty]

One fix could be to add and lock several garrison divisions into place on the Japanese beaches. Perhaps also limit their unit strength to 25-50% and remove a corresponding number of Japan's other garrisons so Japan hasn't gained any manpower

[Australiana]

Anything, absolutely anything, would be better than how it currently is. I might even ship over a few of my own Garrisons to watch over their coastline next time around.

[Limith]

In B4: "Fixed in 1.03"

(Check the DH Memes thread if you don't get it)

But that aside, yes, my AI allies generally swing between wonderfully competent (Austria Hungary at killing rebels for me as Germany) to wonderfully incompetent (Bulgaria literally doing nothing with its army against Serbia).

Italian ai is broken due to...lack of building prewar.

Japan ai is broken due to way too few units imho in stating oob.

[Faulty]

Add this to the japan.inc file in Mods\Darkest Hour Full\scenarios\19xx
Place it anywhere after country = {tag = JAP
It adds 8x 1921 garrison divisions with 5/100 strength, all locked into place at one of the 4 beaches on the home islands. Names are unique.

NB: I don't know what the results will be of having unit IDs that are not contiguous (eg leaping from 298 or whatever to 900)

	landunit = {
		id       = {  type = 13016 id = 900  } 
		name     = "Tokyo Garrison" 
		location = 1552 
		division = {
			id       = {  type = 13016 id = 901  } 
			name     = "Dai 168 Hoheishidan" 
			strength = 5 
			type     = garrison 
			model    = 3
			locked   = yes 
		} 
		division = {
			id       = {  type = 13016 id = 902  } 
			name     = "Dai 169 Hoheishidan" 
			strength = 5 
			type     = garrison 
			model    = 3
			locked   = yes 
		} 
	}
	landunit = {
		id       = {  type = 13016 id = 903  } 
		name     = "Kagoshima Garrison" 
		location = 1561 
		division = {
			id       = {  type = 13016 id = 904  } 
			name     = "Dai 170 Hoheishidan" 
			strength = 5 
			type     = garrison 
			model    = 3
			locked   = yes 
		} 
		division = {
			id       = {  type = 13016 id = 905  } 
			name     = "Dai 171 Hoheishidan" 
			strength = 5 
			type     = garrison 
			model    = 3
			locked   = yes 
		} 
	}
	landunit = {
		id       = {  type = 13016 id = 906  } 
		name     = "Hiroshima Garrison" 
		location = 1554 
		division = {
			id       = {  type = 13016 id = 907  } 
			name     = "Dai 172 Hoheishidan" 
			strength = 5 
			type     = garrison 
			model    = 3
			locked   = yes 
		} 
		division = {
			id       = {  type = 13016 id = 908  } 
			name     = "Dai 173 Hoheishidan" 
			strength = 5 
			type     = garrison 
			model    = 3
			locked   = yes 
		} 
	}
	landunit = {
		id       = {  type = 13016 id = 909  } 
		name     = "Matsuyama Garrison" 
		location = 1559
		division = {
			id       = {  type = 13016 id = 910  } 
			name     = "Dai 174 Hoheishidan" 
			strength = 5 
			type     = garrison 
			model    = 3
			locked   = yes 
		} 
		division = {
			id       = {  type = 13016 id = 911  } 
			name     = "Dai 175 Hoheishidan" 
			strength = 5 
			type     = garrison 
			model    = 3
			locked   = yes 
		} 
	}

[Australiana]

Japan not covering their beaches isn't my only concern, however. For the life of me I can't understand why Japan more often than not decide to attack the USA in mid 1941 when they are still heavily engaged in China. It makes no sense. I was of the opinion that they should have China basically on her knees before they make the 'Pearl Harbour' decision, but considering how leisurely the Japanese go about finishing off that Chinese business, 'Pearl Harbour' might never happen. So, I think one of two conditions should apply.
1. Japan needs to be in possession of certain Chinese provinces before triggering 'Pearl Harbour'.
or
2. If they are not are not in possession of these key provinces, then the decision is effectively forced upon them in December of '41.

Not perfect, I know, but something along these lines perhaps...

[postm00v]

Never underestimate the Dutch, I always say :P

[Australiana]

Never underestimate the Dutch, I always say :P

I certainly don't anymore

[Ivir Baggins]

Japan not covering their beaches isn't my only concern, however. For the life of me I can't understand why Japan more often than not decide to attack the USA in mid 1941 when they are still heavily engaged in China. It makes no sense. I was of the opinion that they should have China basically on her knees before they make the 'Pearl Harbour' decision, but considering how leisurely the Japanese go about finishing off that Chinese business, 'Pearl Harbour' might never happen. So, I think one of two conditions should apply.
1. Japan needs to be in possession of certain Chinese provinces before triggering 'Pearl Harbour'.
or
2. If they are not are not in possession of these key provinces, then the decision is effectively forced upon them in December of '41.

Not perfect, I know, but something along these lines perhaps...

Aren't we forgetting that Japan declared war on USA OTL whilst also being heavily engaged in China?

[Hyo]

The problem is, Japan is declaring war for no reason. It should only happen when its stockpiles gets low, which is the reason why it happened IRL.