Introduction
Hello fellow armchair generals
I recently decided to revisit Japan with "La Resistance" after having played other nations (Germany Britain, Portugal and Spain) to see how it fares. A friend joined me and we decided to try some asian Domination with him going for "Free India" and me doing Japan. To get the elephant out of the room, I do not consider myself a pro (even with more than 1k hours in because I play alot with Mods like RT56 or CWIC with the latter being my favorite). Also, I HATE puppets, really. In asia at least they are of no use, kill your supply routes and spam you with their crappy divisions - either on the border or by offering them to you. That is why I fully annex China (while knowing that if I'd want manpower puppeting central China would be preferable).
What I'd like to talk about
- Balance opinions
- Quirks we found
- of course, Strategies
Setting the stage
After several failed tries finally had a good go. The main reasons for failing was the setup. We did not want a total historical game so we played around with the focus tree settings. Because there are some interdependencies (like India being unable for a fascist civil war if Germany isn't fascist or Britain not decolonizing and the like) you should be careful what you choose.
The basic strategy was to conquer most of asia and the middle east - not world conquest. After that we'd decide what we do with our own faction.
Basic Japan setup and gameplan
I decided to focus on land warfare, of course. I abandoned all naval unit buildup in the queue (Subs, old Destroyers...) except the useful ones and started to build Convoys. Put up decent production for Infantry Equipment (8-10 MIC), 4 to Support Equipment and 3 to Artillery. I also started buildung trucks and light tanks in small numbers. After this, I disbanded all units with Cavalry Template and Garrison Template.
The first year was pretty standard. Send volunteers to the SCW. With the XP i reduced my main template to 20W pure Infantry with 4x Support (Recon, Engineer, Artillery, Logistics) and did the same to the Motorized (reducing width) and the Light Tank (increasing width) Divisions.
Research was also standard, focusing on infantry, going for superior firepower and dispersed industry (because I would shuffle MIC regularily).
Airforce was an afterthought because you just cannot keep everything up to date and whatever you got is basically enough for China.
Focus wise I went for the Dockyrds first, then went down to Spiritual Mobilization via "Purge the Kodoha", founded my own faction and used the army focus for missing XP before taking the "Marco Polo" focus.
I also did a very unusual move this time - founding a spy agency! I rarely see that as Japan in Videos or streams (and can fully understand why, but...). First time I played with Japan in the current version and after slogging through China for ages, I was very (very very very...) dissapointed with what I got in the end. Nearly no resources, no factories, no manpower. Sooooo I decided to go setup up a collaboration government this time. I reached 75% after two operations before the war started.
The war in China
The war started a bit late - May 1938. But I was sure, any earlier and it would be a massacre like the first two tries.
I set up about 40 DIvisions of Infantry on the northern border, ONLY calling in Manchuko. After having done all "Escalate the War" decisions, a naval Invasion with 12 Divisions was ready with another one of the same size being planned and more units being added. For the Invasion I used a mix of motorized, light tank and infantry divisions. Those did fairly well and so the CUF forces split up,
After defending for the first months, my units finally went on the offensive on all fronts and made good gains while I reinforced the landings and planned the third invasions.
At this time, I decided to start refitting my fleet with conversions and already existing upgrades ( I did not train them because...meh Oil and stuff and Naval XP gain for Japan is limited vs. China).
While advancing and uniting my frontlines I started a third operation for collaboration. China finally capitulated in May 1940.
Meanwhile, India broke free and conquered Iran.
The Situation by now in 1942
I had to manually conquer Xibei and Yunnan - they somehow dropped out of the peacedeal. This happens alot and I don#t know why. When the french rolled over to Germany I got Indochina from them. So I'm looking pretty neat now. India got Iraq and Saudi Arabia while Germany/Romania/Italy and Austria-Hungary (lol) are at war with the SU and the Allies (Commonwealth only for now).
Brazil went fascist, is in my Faction and still at war with Portugal which tried to go monarchist. Same for Spain which failed and is now communist. The US is still more or less sleeping but the world is burning and they will soon join somebody.
Then we finally took a break, thinking about what to do: Conquering all of Asia first and fighting the Allies (at least we good access to Germany and Italy) or helping the Axis against the USSR.
Lessions learned:
The motorized and light tanks did REALLY well. All in all, against the whole of the CUF I lost about 220k with the CUF ranging at about 2.5 Million. Setting up the collaboration REALLY REALLY is worth it, trust me! Just as an example, while being at Total Mobilization (with Spiritual Mobilization and Extensive Conscription) and the proper Minister my free Manpower is close to 5 Million! This is the first game where I do really feel like having accomplished something with conquering China instead of being screwed over because what you get just isn't worth the effort you put into (I know, war is stupid and all but this is a game after all).
I'm sitting at about 200 Factories which isn't too shabby but nothing compared to the other majors, India getting stronger every month (luckily ).
I also need to be more aware of my research. Because I couldn't always pause during the war (well, MP game) I messed up some research that I shouldn't have taken or taken some earlier than I did.
The Quirks and downsides
The downside simply put is the time it takes. You need about two years to be prepared (because of the Collaboration Operations ) and, including the "Escalate the War" decisions another two years until you're finished with puts you into early to mid 1940. I suppose I could have done it a little faster but I mainly used Battleplans so my Generals get trained.
Overall, after two years of conquering, Japan still feels "a tad too weak" overall. Chinas Infrastructure is a pain in the arse so you need to build those up to be able to help the Axis with Russia. If you go south you're in a neverending war against the Commonwealth because man, how to reach Britain - that will take some time.
The Quirks are ... dude was I pissed off sometimes The front shuffling made me mad. Also, China seems to spawn units out of thin air and doesn't care for attrition until they REALLY stack up (like 25 Divisions in one Mountain province, but that's AI overll). I suppose the put those "in reserve" after production by not deploying them. I'm OK with that because they don't have any ORG. Which doesn't explain the full ORG divisions sometimes suddenly appearing.
And then, the Peacedeal...how on Earth is it possible that some members just drop out of the faction (Xibei, Yunnan, Sinkiang) out of the peacedeal and then are at peace with you? That really slowed me down and cost me half a year.
Another downside is the naval part. While I still now fully understand how it works, I get the feeling that Japan is somewhat screwed there. I had to focus so much on land warfare that I am STILL refitting/converting very old ships with a little less old designs in 1942, and those are only half of what I would WANT to refit. Yeah you can't always get what you want but it's a bit absurd.
Overall Opinion
Japan still is fun and one of my favorites to play. With "La Resistance" I feel that they are weaker than before and could need at least some help in any regard - be it research bonuses or some factory/resource buff - or making it easier to put a collaboration in place. Maybe a new part of the focustree that gives you bonuses or decisions to help you in China after the war (Infrastructure buildup, increase collaboration or whatever).
I think if being paired with a historical Germany, Japan can build up to be a real pain and a help instead of a hindrance. But overall, while being fully aware of the historical context, from a gameplay perspective I would prefer to be able to finish my war in China about a year before the SU and Germany start to hit it off to prepare a bit (*cough* infrastructure *cough*).
I know, Germany is more on the strong side in regards to the historical context. But as a player it's not difficult to get hundreds of factories (and well, you need those) by 1940. If not cheesing/exploiting it I'd say double of what I got isn't that hard if I remember correctly.
And whatever you do, you'll never be able to beat the Allies on the naval side (only if you TOTALLY focus on it, risking a defeat in China screwing you anyways). And, that is with the AI not really redesigning/building proper ships.
And now: Open Discussion!
I'd be happy to see your Opinions here. Do you think the strategy was good or bad? Ways to improve it? Could Japan need some help regarding balance?
Thanks for reading the wall of text
Happy armchairing
Hello fellow armchair generals
I recently decided to revisit Japan with "La Resistance" after having played other nations (Germany Britain, Portugal and Spain) to see how it fares. A friend joined me and we decided to try some asian Domination with him going for "Free India" and me doing Japan. To get the elephant out of the room, I do not consider myself a pro (even with more than 1k hours in because I play alot with Mods like RT56 or CWIC with the latter being my favorite). Also, I HATE puppets, really. In asia at least they are of no use, kill your supply routes and spam you with their crappy divisions - either on the border or by offering them to you. That is why I fully annex China (while knowing that if I'd want manpower puppeting central China would be preferable).What I'd like to talk about
- Balance opinions
- Quirks we found
- of course, Strategies
Setting the stage
After several failed tries finally had a good go. The main reasons for failing was the setup. We did not want a total historical game so we played around with the focus tree settings. Because there are some interdependencies (like India being unable for a fascist civil war if Germany isn't fascist or Britain not decolonizing and the like) you should be careful what you choose.
The basic strategy was to conquer most of asia and the middle east - not world conquest. After that we'd decide what we do with our own faction.
Basic Japan setup and gameplan
I decided to focus on land warfare, of course. I abandoned all naval unit buildup in the queue (Subs, old Destroyers...) except the useful ones and started to build Convoys. Put up decent production for Infantry Equipment (8-10 MIC), 4 to Support Equipment and 3 to Artillery. I also started buildung trucks and light tanks in small numbers. After this, I disbanded all units with Cavalry Template and Garrison Template.
The first year was pretty standard. Send volunteers to the SCW. With the XP i reduced my main template to 20W pure Infantry with 4x Support (Recon, Engineer, Artillery, Logistics) and did the same to the Motorized (reducing width) and the Light Tank (increasing width) Divisions.
Research was also standard, focusing on infantry, going for superior firepower and dispersed industry (because I would shuffle MIC regularily).
Airforce was an afterthought because you just cannot keep everything up to date and whatever you got is basically enough for China.
Focus wise I went for the Dockyrds first, then went down to Spiritual Mobilization via "Purge the Kodoha", founded my own faction and used the army focus for missing XP before taking the "Marco Polo" focus.
I also did a very unusual move this time - founding a spy agency! I rarely see that as Japan in Videos or streams (and can fully understand why, but...). First time I played with Japan in the current version and after slogging through China for ages, I was very (very very very...) dissapointed with what I got in the end. Nearly no resources, no factories, no manpower. Sooooo I decided to go setup up a collaboration government this time. I reached 75% after two operations before the war started.
The war in China
The war started a bit late - May 1938. But I was sure, any earlier and it would be a massacre like the first two tries.
I set up about 40 DIvisions of Infantry on the northern border, ONLY calling in Manchuko. After having done all "Escalate the War" decisions, a naval Invasion with 12 Divisions was ready with another one of the same size being planned and more units being added. For the Invasion I used a mix of motorized, light tank and infantry divisions. Those did fairly well and so the CUF forces split up,
After defending for the first months, my units finally went on the offensive on all fronts and made good gains while I reinforced the landings and planned the third invasions.
At this time, I decided to start refitting my fleet with conversions and already existing upgrades ( I did not train them because...meh Oil and stuff and Naval XP gain for Japan is limited vs. China).
While advancing and uniting my frontlines I started a third operation for collaboration. China finally capitulated in May 1940.
Meanwhile, India broke free and conquered Iran.
The Situation by now in 1942
I had to manually conquer Xibei and Yunnan - they somehow dropped out of the peacedeal. This happens alot and I don#t know why. When the french rolled over to Germany I got Indochina from them. So I'm looking pretty neat now. India got Iraq and Saudi Arabia while Germany/Romania/Italy and Austria-Hungary (lol) are at war with the SU and the Allies (Commonwealth only for now).
Brazil went fascist, is in my Faction and still at war with Portugal which tried to go monarchist. Same for Spain which failed and is now communist. The US is still more or less sleeping but the world is burning and they will soon join somebody.
Then we finally took a break, thinking about what to do: Conquering all of Asia first and fighting the Allies (at least we good access to Germany and Italy) or helping the Axis against the USSR.
Lessions learned:
The motorized and light tanks did REALLY well. All in all, against the whole of the CUF I lost about 220k with the CUF ranging at about 2.5 Million. Setting up the collaboration REALLY REALLY is worth it, trust me! Just as an example, while being at Total Mobilization (with Spiritual Mobilization and Extensive Conscription) and the proper Minister my free Manpower is close to 5 Million! This is the first game where I do really feel like having accomplished something with conquering China instead of being screwed over because what you get just isn't worth the effort you put into (I know, war is stupid and all but this is a game after all).
I'm sitting at about 200 Factories which isn't too shabby but nothing compared to the other majors, India getting stronger every month (luckily
).I also need to be more aware of my research. Because I couldn't always pause during the war (well, MP game) I messed up some research that I shouldn't have taken or taken some earlier than I did.
The Quirks and downsides
The downside simply put is the time it takes. You need about two years to be prepared (because of the Collaboration Operations ) and, including the "Escalate the War" decisions another two years until you're finished with puts you into early to mid 1940. I suppose I could have done it a little faster but I mainly used Battleplans so my Generals get trained.
Overall, after two years of conquering, Japan still feels "a tad too weak" overall. Chinas Infrastructure is a pain in the arse so you need to build those up to be able to help the Axis with Russia. If you go south you're in a neverending war against the Commonwealth because man, how to reach Britain - that will take some time.
The Quirks are ... dude was I pissed off sometimes
The front shuffling made me mad. Also, China seems to spawn units out of thin air and doesn't care for attrition until they REALLY stack up (like 25 Divisions in one Mountain province, but that's AI overll). I suppose the put those "in reserve" after production by not deploying them. I'm OK with that because they don't have any ORG. Which doesn't explain the full ORG divisions sometimes suddenly appearing.And then, the Peacedeal...how on Earth is it possible that some members just drop out of the faction (Xibei, Yunnan, Sinkiang) out of the peacedeal and then are at peace with you? That really slowed me down and cost me half a year.
Another downside is the naval part. While I still now fully understand how it works, I get the feeling that Japan is somewhat screwed there. I had to focus so much on land warfare that I am STILL refitting/converting very old ships with a little less old designs in 1942, and those are only half of what I would WANT to refit. Yeah you can't always get what you want but it's a bit absurd.
Overall Opinion
Japan still is fun and one of my favorites to play. With "La Resistance" I feel that they are weaker than before and could need at least some help in any regard - be it research bonuses or some factory/resource buff - or making it easier to put a collaboration in place. Maybe a new part of the focustree that gives you bonuses or decisions to help you in China after the war (Infrastructure buildup, increase collaboration or whatever).
I think if being paired with a historical Germany, Japan can build up to be a real pain and a help instead of a hindrance. But overall, while being fully aware of the historical context, from a gameplay perspective I would prefer to be able to finish my war in China about a year before the SU and Germany start to hit it off to prepare a bit (*cough* infrastructure *cough*).
I know, Germany is more on the strong side in regards to the historical context. But as a player it's not difficult to get hundreds of factories (and well, you need those) by 1940. If not cheesing/exploiting it I'd say double of what I got isn't that hard if I remember correctly.
And whatever you do, you'll never be able to beat the Allies on the naval side (only if you TOTALLY focus on it, risking a defeat in China screwing you anyways). And, that is with the AI not really redesigning/building proper ships.
And now: Open Discussion!
I'd be happy to see your Opinions here. Do you think the strategy was good or bad? Ways to improve it? Could Japan need some help regarding balance?
Thanks for reading the wall of text
Happy armchairing
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