Communist China United Front?

[Adonnus]

I beat Nationalist China in the 1933 scenario after getting the 14th Route Army event, then when I annexed them Japan DOW'd me. I got a "United Front" event but all it did was improve relations with Shaanxi and Yunnan, it didn't give me an alliance nor any troops? What's the point of only a relations boost and nothing else? Anyway, Japan keeps kicking my ass since I don't have enough troops to hold the front.

Edit: And why does Japan declare war on me instantly when I beat Nationalist China, but not when I as the Nationalist player annex Communist?

Why does declaring war on Yunnan and annexing them not only get me 0 of their divisions, unlike when I do it as the nationalist, but give me +5 dissent? 5 dissent for unifying China, wtf? And 14th Route Army defects to me, but 0 of the warlords troops do? How does that make sense!

And why do I not have the option to change leader? I can even click on Mao for policies, but it doesn't choose Mao as the leader anyway.

I can't possibly win as Communist China since even annexing other warlords won't give me more divisions.

 

[Ilyasviel]

Beating Japan as communist China isn't actually difficult. You don't even need to annex the warlords. Just occupy KMT territory without annexing them and spam militia for a bit. In no time you'll have an army large enough to challenge Japan and unify China.

 

[Adonnus]

Technically true but that's really just an exploit and shouldn't be required.

 

[Dr. Intolerance]

Technically true but that's really just an exploit and shouldn't be required.

Not at all, I say. If the minister remains in the cabinet, able to exert useful modifiers on occupied territories, then it's just great to keep him around as long as possible. Skip so-called reparations of an annexed adversary and take as long as needed and moreso through reconstruction via occupation.

 

[Force Lord]

The reason CHC can't inherit the warlord armies when annexing them (unlike CHI) might be due to CHC's intrinsic_gov_type being "leninist", despite having the same regular_id as CHI and the major warlord states (UCH, except SIK whose regular_id is CHI).

As an aside, you can annex the Chinese warlords as CHC in the "19th Army defects" path, with CHC's victory event (that will be triggered after another event that appears after you annex CHI or occupy at least 90% of CHI's national provinces), however for that event to allow you to annex the warlords, you must take a step that can be easily overlooked when you're fighting CHI. This is the event in question:

# Communists Win
event = {
    id = 1330110027
    random = no
    country = CHC

    #Triggered

    name = ACTION_NAME_VICTORY
    desc = EVT_1330110027_DESC

    picture = "ccip_craf"
    style = 2

    action = {
        name = ACTION_NAME_HURRAH
        command = { trigger = { exists = CHI } type = inherit which = CHI value = 0 }
        command = { trigger = { exists = CHI } type = event which = 1330110026 where = CHI when = 0 } #Secede Helper
        command = { trigger = { exists = CXB war = { country = CXB country = CHC } } type = inherit which = CXB value = 0 }
        command = { trigger = { exists = CXB war = { country = CXB country = CHC } } type = event which = 1330110026 where = CXB when = 0 } #Secede Helper
        command = { trigger = { exists = CSX war = { country = CSX country = CHC } } type = inherit which = CSX value = 1 }
        command = { trigger = { exists = CSX war = { country = CSX country = CHC } } type = event which = 1330110026 where = CSX when = 0 } #Secede Helper
        command = { trigger = { exists = CGX war = { country = CGX country = CHC } } type = inherit which = CGX value = 0 }
        command = { trigger = { exists = CGX war = { country = CGX country = CHC } } type = event which = 1330110026 where = CGX when = 0 } #Secede Helper
        command = { trigger = { exists = CYN war = { country = CYN country = CHC } } type = inherit which = CYN value = 0 }
        command = { trigger = { exists = CYN war = { country = CYN country = CHC } } type = event which = 1330110026 where = CYN when = 0 } #Secede Helper
        command = { type = dissent value = -20 }
        command = { type = waketeam which = 260020 when = 1 } #Jiangnan Shipbuilding Factory
        command = { trigger = { policy = { type = professional_army value = 3 } } type = event which = 1330110012 where = CHI when = 0 } #Demobilization
        command = { type = event which = 1330110031 where = CHC when = 7 } #New United Front
        command = { type = event which = 1330110053 where = JAP when = 0 } #Enemy at the Gates!
    }
}

As you can see, for CHC to annex the warlords, it must be at war with them when you annex CHI. Also, you will only inherit Shanxi's troops, presumably because the alliance between the Chinese Communists, the Fujian People's Government and the Guangxi Clique would convince Yan Xishan that the CPC has become less dogmatic in its insistence on class struggle and will make him more receptive to collaborate with them, though outside of inheriting the Shanxi armies, CHC doesn't get Shanxi ministers or leaders.

So, in short, if you want CHC to annex the warlords during the "19th Army defects" path, be sure to declare war on them before you annex CHI.

EDIT: You may have also noticed that CHC in the 1933 scenario can't declare war on other countries due to the belligerence threshold that its starting sliders impose. You'll never be able to increase your interventionism fast enough, so I'd advise you to focus on increasing your authoritarianism to make it easier for you to declare war.