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HoI 4 Dev Diary - Manchukuo

Hello and welcome back to another Dev Diary. This week we will look at the last unrevealed focus tree for Waking the Tiger: Manchukuo.


Manchukuo is perhaps one of the weirdest players in the Chinese Civil War. Formally an Empire led by an Emperor, it was also a puppet. Despite owning a large chunk of China, it was never able to field the numbers the other Chinese factions brought to the fight. Despite being ruled by the last legitimate Son of Heaven, no one particularly liked this government.


Capture_intro.JPG



As such, your position at the start of the game is precarious at best. You have practically no support from the population, your industry base is mostly working for the Japanese, your army is somewhat less than befitting your station and to start with, there are bandits running around the country causing havoc.


man_ft2.jpg



So your first step has to be the pacification of the countryside. You can do this by either maintaining a military presence in the relevant areas or spending some manpower and infantry equipment in a more aggressive campaign to hunt them down. You should hurry, though, as the bandit raids will damage your infrastructure and industry if you let them proceed too long.


raids.jpg



Once the country is reasonably pacified, you face a more difficult choice: Either you decide to be an obedient little puppet or you start down on your path to independence and restoring the Empire that has always been yours by birth.


We developers, of course, withhold any judgment about which path you take.


Should you choose to remain a mere pathetic lapdog of the Japanese, you sell your dignity and freedom very dear indeed, as that branch gives you a much more powerful economy. Five year plans allow you to shape the direction of your industry for the next, well, five years, giving you the option to focus on industrial growth, military production or aircraft development. You will gain more infrastructure and factories along the way.


Capture_fyp.JPG



Finally, by allying with the Kwantung Army, you can position yourself as the natural leader of China from the Japanese perspective and get all captured Chinese territories turned over to you. Only then can you gain some autonomy and finally arrive at an equal standing with your supposed “Brother-Emperor”.


Should you, however, decide to take a stand for your freedom and independence and assert yourself, you will have a much harder job ahead of you as your imperial masters will not invest nearly as heavily into your state.



hoi4_120.jpg


More than that, in order to gain your independence, you will have to be patient and gain some small concessions here and there. The next fundamental choice for you is whether you want to turn your country into a society dominated by Manchus, or if you will make good on the propaganda of five equal races under one banner. Each will give you different advantages.

Afterwards, you will at last prepare for the war of independence against Japan (we actually had to rewrite our war system to allow you to be at war with both Japan and China, while they are also at war with each other). However, this branch will allow you to eventually get rid of the penalties from low legitimacy as you climb the ladder to restore your Imperial rule all across China. Once you break free from your Japanese overlords, you will once again be known as Qing China. Conquering the rest of China allows you to claim the Mandate of Heaven and announce yourself to the world as The Chinese Empire (2.0)


hoi4_121.jpg



Much like the other main Chinese factions (Nationalists and Communists), Manchukuo has access to the shared focus tree that allows them to build up their industry and develop new technologies. Owing to its position in the world, the only viable paths at game start are Germany and Japan, but breaking free will give you the opportunity to reach out to new partners.


That is all for this week. There will be a dev diary next week, but we won't tell you what it is just yet (we are working on a number of things that may or may not be done in time for the dev diary). At World War Wednesday today, our intrepid team of Daniel and Gabriel will continue to try and conquer China while making some of the worst jokes known to humanity. Tune in at 16:00 CET and ask your questions about the focus tree: https://www.twitch.tv/paradoxinteractive


Rejected Titles for this Dev Diary:

China - under new MANagement

This Focus tree sponsored by Burger Qing

MAN-spreading all over China

Henry Puyi and the Dragon Throne

This focus tree will make a MAN out of you

This DLC is basically MAN-datory

Hail to the Qing

Coming up with rejected titles took longer than writing the rest of this diary
 
Last edited:

Duke_Dave

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THANK YOU! :):):)
So very excited! Enough new artwork for its own DD?!?!?!
Most Excellent!
Well China just had 2 plane projects, Japan has all its art already. It is just the infantry sprites for Red China, National and Warlords.
 

Duke_Dave

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I didn't watch the Stream, but it has been too easy for Japan to hold rear areas in China. To better represent the historical reality Japan should need to occupy Chinese territory or face revolts with partisan units. So the strength of the Chinese army is less the issue than the ability for Japan to garrison China.
Read the Communist China DD they will be able to do that.
 
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Duke_Dave

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JerkyJerry

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Well China just had 2 plane projects, Japan has all its art already. It is just the infantry sprites for Red China, National and Warlords.
Thanks Downer Dave! :p
 

Duke_Dave

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Thanks Downer Dave! :p
I am sorry, they could introduce different sprites for paratroopers and mountain troops but China did not have any fancy tank projects.
 

Captured Joe

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I am sorry, they could introduce different sprites for paratroopers and mountain troops but China did not have any fancy tank projects.
They did have a large number of different imported tanks though (most of them very light ones). CV35s, PzKpfw Is, Vickers Mark Es, AMR-35s, T-26s and BT-5s (and later on M5 Stuarts, M4 Shermans and captured Japanese Type 95 Ha-Gos and Type 97 Chi-Has, of course).
 

Pyro157

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From the dev diary, it seemed like the Republic of China can only go democratic and there's no non-aligned option. I put in my two cents in that thread and hopefully they have a more historically appropriate alternative by the time the DLC is released.

I actually think the decision for "Introducing Democracy" will be somewhat like this. Elections are allowed now - the only issue is what party should continue.

You have the options to:
  • Make China Democratic League the ruling party, Chiang retires.
  • Remain non-aligned, just allow elections now. Chiang remains leader.
  • Alternatively you can merge with the CDL, and make the democratic party the KMT, except under conservatism rather than democratic socialism. However this brings up the issue of what the non-aligned party should be now, so I'm not too in favor of this third option.
There we go!
 
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Captured Joe

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RedBaronFlyer

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I never understood this forums obsession with Manchukuo.

Restoration of "____" will always be popular with fans of history. It's why Byzantium -> Roman Empire is such a popular thing to play in CK2 and EU4.
 

Captured Joe

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It's part of the obsession with the rebirth of other very dead empires, like the German and Austro-Hungarian ones (and even the friggin' HRE) here. And Manchukuo seems to be the successor to Imperial China.
 

The_Meme_Man

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It's part of the obsession with the rebirth of other very dead empires, like the German and Austro-Hungarian ones (and even the friggin' HRE) here. And Manchukuo seems to be the successor to Imperial China.
Maybe we just like flag changes.
 

Gamengervi

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I actually think the decision for "Introducing Democracy" will be somewhat like this. Elections are allowed now - the only issue is what party should continue.

You have the options to:
  • Make China Democratic League the ruling party, Chiang retires.
  • Remain non-aligned, just allow elections now. Chiang remains leader.
  • Alternatively you can merge with the CDL, and make the democratic party the KMT, except under conservatism rather than democratic socialism. However this brings up the issue of what the non-aligned party should be now, so I'm not too in favor of this third option.
There we go!
Anything's fine for me, really, but Chiang was a dictator clearly not interested in democracy. There needs to be an authoritarian path as a historical option much like Manchuria is getting a path that has it as a complaint Japanese puppet. I do want a democratic option and some of your ideas are nice, but there needs to be that historical branch there as well.