Recently started a new HOD game as Japan. Roughly 1850 and have just taken Korea, which was much harder than I thought it would be thanks to the endless Chinese stacks of peasants. Basically, I want to know the best way to go about achieving Westernisation, achieving naval dominance and what to aim for as Japan. As well as any other helpful tips as I haven't played a Vic 2 game for a while.
Japan advice HOD
- Thread starter Crunchyxss
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Make sure you get your naval base tech up to level three as quickly as possible, then get up to the tech level so you can build ironclads. Then you can start worrying about other stuff (except maybe take Medicine first). The AI is completely hapless when faced with a naval superpower, so you can kick the westerners out of their island colonies at your leisure once you've got twenty or thirty ironclads, and a matching amount of commerce raiders, with a good defensive admiral. Fighting the British will probably require some good army tech though, as they have a lot of allies in the region with lots of troops, and will march some at you as well. Get a good defensive setup (your fortification tech is far from useless) with good artillery support and tech, and let them come to you. It will be later in the game when this happens, so artillery (your main killer) will be much better on the defense than on the attack.
+1
Taking Korea might return to haunt you. In-game, Korea tends to be very militant when annexed by Japan.
Taking Korea + Early Meji should almost bring you to westernization, no ? If you take the reforms that increase research points through conquests.
If you're ready to expand a bit more, taking small states in Asia will extend your naval range, though I'd say taking a bit of Egypt will get you in range for african colonization. If you took a lot of infamy in your first period of conquest, african / pacific colonization is a nice way to let it cool off while expanding.
Naval dominance relies mostly on upgrading your bases and naval tech, getting enough supply capacity to support a huge fleet.
Industry-wise, there'll shortage of coal, so taking Manchuria will help with that.
As Japan you can aim first for East-Asia domination. That's why I often get land near the dutch (invading Atjeh for example), it seems that if you have negative relations with them it often triggers a free "Place in the sun" CB allowing you to take Sumatra or Java. Once you dominate East-Asia and central pacific Island, I usually tend to end up with getting California & Oregon and making Japan the true and only Pacific superpower.
If you're more concerned with late industrial development you need to go for the rubber, first in Asia, then in Africa, then in Brazil. For Brazil a nice trick is to conquer one of the Guyanas which will make sphering them so much easier!
If you're ready to expand a bit more, taking small states in Asia will extend your naval range, though I'd say taking a bit of Egypt will get you in range for african colonization. If you took a lot of infamy in your first period of conquest, african / pacific colonization is a nice way to let it cool off while expanding.
Naval dominance relies mostly on upgrading your bases and naval tech, getting enough supply capacity to support a huge fleet.
Industry-wise, there'll shortage of coal, so taking Manchuria will help with that.
As Japan you can aim first for East-Asia domination. That's why I often get land near the dutch (invading Atjeh for example), it seems that if you have negative relations with them it often triggers a free "Place in the sun" CB allowing you to take Sumatra or Java. Once you dominate East-Asia and central pacific Island, I usually tend to end up with getting California & Oregon and making Japan the true and only Pacific superpower.
If you're more concerned with late industrial development you need to go for the rubber, first in Asia, then in Africa, then in Brazil. For Brazil a nice trick is to conquer one of the Guyanas which will make sphering them so much easier!
*evil scheming noises and cackling*
Naval dominance is rather easy, generally what I do is a navy of 15 capital ships and 10 screens. Four, eight, 12, etc. I generally outnumber even GB's army by like, 1860.
As for what to aim for, it really all depends. Seeing "Japanese Africa" can be extremely satisfying. As can having a higher industrial score than Germany and the UK combined. Biggest thing, establish a Pacific Empire. No matter what. There's a reason it really happened.
'Watch out for the Netherlands' rather eerily came true, in that they are trying to take Johore/Malaya from me. All feedback and advice is appreciated thank you.
Depending on the situation you should be able to keep Malaya from them. Do they have a strong army tech lead and a navy to match ? If the tech lead is not big, defending against landings with superior numbers should work until warscore from battles and from ticking forces them to white peace.
If you took Malaya and manage to keep it from the dutch, raise relations with UK because they could be interested too and they would swarm you with indian troops.
If you took Malaya and manage to keep it from the dutch, raise relations with UK because they could be interested too and they would swarm you with indian troops.
Update: Won the war against Dutch with relative ease. Managed to squeeze Java out of them too, am a bit worried for when Java becomes a state once I westernise because I'll have massive militancy problems but anyway. I do aim to make a Pacific Empire although my navy really is quite shocking.
You'll probably have more problems with Korea. Koreans can easily form a 1M Liberation movement that makes you get crises over crises. Even Manchuria that has more inhabitants (most of them in 1 region) is not as annoying.
By the way, if you want to take Outer Manchuria, you gotta do it early so that Russia doesn't get cores on it (and it keeps its original name).
The best way I found to get Westernization is : Early Meiji + Annex Korea + Acquire substate Inner Manchuria (+Outer Manchuria, but Inner is enough to achieve Westernization). You can westernize by 1842-1844 (probably earlier if you're fast) with that.
Having extreme trouble taking on China. I decided it would be easier to get a casus belli against their ally Dai Nam, which resulted in none of China's sub-states helping them in the war, but I still can't win. I had 40% warscore mainly just from battles but as the war dragged on it became harder and harder to win effectively before I would just get slammed by a 200 stack against my worn out armies. Any advice? BTW, I am on the defensive and use Korea as a point from which to withstand Chinese attack although this despite early success can only work for so long.
A lot of people will tell you to go after China ASAP, but that's never worked for me. They have way more guys than you, and your troops aren't that much better. You need to research up your land units a bit first. Maybe go for Manchuria after you've gotten the second line filled up if you can't wait any longer, and lure them into attacking you in places where you have ample reinforcement for your front line, so your back line of artillery can annihilate their army. Still, they'll take a long time to westernize, and will be way behind even when they do. It shouldn't be too hard to get the third line filled up as well.
Unless you are in a hurry the simplest way is to just sit in Korea and keep destroying coming Chinese armies one-by-one. After some time (2 years I think), the Korean liberation warscore will start ticking and together with battles you will get high enough warscore to demand whatever you like.
Worked to a tee, thanks for the help. Now not so much a problem, but I've just Westernised and I'm wondering should I lower taxes and tariffs? I've had tariffs and taxes on 100% on for most of the game, which I never do playing as a European nation, but now I'm Westernised should I cut back? I understand the implications of having taxes high on the rich (less industry) and having high tariff (less stuff for your pops), but I saw little of anything to that effect during my path to Westernisation so should I cut back on said tariffs and taxes?
You want to add a wargoal as soon as warscore starts ticking, since adding a wargoal resets it, afaik (no need to wait too much).
For taxes, poor to the max, middle to the max unless you have high tax efficiency, and capitalists, low if you are interventionist or laissez faire. Tariffs should be low as well (only if I or LF, State Capitalism should only be used to start up your industry, build 2 factories in each region, let them fill a bit, switch to I, and then later to LF), but if you conquer China, you'll have enough resources and can have tariffs.
Tariffs are a tool to have an income before you develop an industry and efficient tax system. Even as a western nation I go for 100% tariffs sometimes.
With Japan, put a state capitalist party in power, develop a good industrial base and lower tariffs every time you make money, you'll get to 0 pretty quickly.
Concerning taxes, once you have money-making factories you don't need to keep taxes low of capitalists, they make more than enough (it doesn't mean you should tax them at 100%!). Lower taxes on poor people also help with militancy, demands and promotions and a satisfied pop is less likely to emigrate).
Basically watch the actual tax rate and the needs fulfilled of your pops and adjust as needed.
With Japan, put a state capitalist party in power, develop a good industrial base and lower tariffs every time you make money, you'll get to 0 pretty quickly.
Concerning taxes, once you have money-making factories you don't need to keep taxes low of capitalists, they make more than enough (it doesn't mean you should tax them at 100%!). Lower taxes on poor people also help with militancy, demands and promotions and a satisfied pop is less likely to emigrate).
Basically watch the actual tax rate and the needs fulfilled of your pops and adjust as needed.
It depends on what you're importing which depends on what you conquered. It's likely that your are importing a lot of food, so it's a good idea to lower tariffs at least to a point where people can afford life needs. In such situations lowering tariffs is better than lowering taxes, because lowering tariffs will benefit your factually poor more while lowering taxes benefits your factually rich (which includes gold miners) more. As the game progresses you probably want to gradually lower tariffs to create demand on your manufactured goods. Typically having your pops buy foreign manufactured goods is undesirable, so you want to keep your tariff and tax balance so that all your manufactured goods are getting sold, and you are not importing them.