Ya know I was actually pretty thrilled to see a China DLC but I find the new design decisions either underwhelming or outright pointless due to the factors of time and circumstance. I'll list several of the highlights of what I mean and to show how in both SP and in MP scenarios how China as a whole is just an undercooked mess. (sorry for the wall of text)
1. the Warlords: Truly the development spent on the warlords was a useless addition and pretty much serve in the same purpose they did in the last patch, in that they do nothing. They don't apply any of the prominent features that Paradox highlighted and often push you as nationalist China to form the united front (in an event). So there really is no simulation of a fractured China because the issue can get solved rather quickly (by event or focus) and nothings going on to even humor that notion. There are no border conflicts, PRC isn't trying to undermine you and scheme for your demise, the warlords aren't individually vying for control for leadership its just essentially Nationalist China (besides for the volunteers you get from the warlords). Which is just boring and makes me wonder what other better use of their time would've been spent prioritizing and refining other features like Siam, further naval war updates, USA tree to counter the Japanese, more events/decisions for the other majors and so on.
2. Nationalist China: It appears to have been designed with the intention of having a multitude of paths in which Paradox has set up for the player to use. However alot of them are just not worth the time or investment and often hurts you more to go down those alternatives as compared to the obvious choice of developing yourself. Why would I increase my inflation cost to get small bonuses to war support (welfare section of the tree) when I will get a huge chunk when Japan invades because its a defensive war? Why would I focus on the interior when I see no threat from the warlords or any substantial benefit from killing and integrating them? Sure the factories are good but why hurt myself when I know I have Japan looming over me? Why would I consider outside investment (at least initially) when I get more benefit from addressing my stability issues (which can get resolved in two focuses and an advisor) and economic issues while, building mils, and preparing the defense for Japan? I only have a limited time to prepare but all the other options either hurt me in the short term or aren't applicable until the long term
3. Manchuria: This is more of a MP balance issue but my god did paradox not even consider the fact that there might be a Manchuria and a Japanese player collaborating with one another? I've found that Manchuria can become a stupidly large resource hub for Japan and that defiantly needs some tweaking. Especially since all the resource development areas are available for Manchuria which they can develop and do the extraction decisions in order to hand it over to Japan with little to no issue. At the same time they can use the huge manpower pool and build a metric tons of 20 widths to guard the coast of China while Japan looks abroad. So in a sense its a huge juggernaut and pays in dividends for the Japanese player. Here is a screen shot of the values I had in resources by the time of 1941 and we killed china around the start of 1939. Japan Gave me the majority of the interior including Sinkang while he took the coastline.
1. the Warlords: Truly the development spent on the warlords was a useless addition and pretty much serve in the same purpose they did in the last patch, in that they do nothing. They don't apply any of the prominent features that Paradox highlighted and often push you as nationalist China to form the united front (in an event). So there really is no simulation of a fractured China because the issue can get solved rather quickly (by event or focus) and nothings going on to even humor that notion. There are no border conflicts, PRC isn't trying to undermine you and scheme for your demise, the warlords aren't individually vying for control for leadership its just essentially Nationalist China (besides for the volunteers you get from the warlords). Which is just boring and makes me wonder what other better use of their time would've been spent prioritizing and refining other features like Siam, further naval war updates, USA tree to counter the Japanese, more events/decisions for the other majors and so on.
2. Nationalist China: It appears to have been designed with the intention of having a multitude of paths in which Paradox has set up for the player to use. However alot of them are just not worth the time or investment and often hurts you more to go down those alternatives as compared to the obvious choice of developing yourself. Why would I increase my inflation cost to get small bonuses to war support (welfare section of the tree) when I will get a huge chunk when Japan invades because its a defensive war? Why would I focus on the interior when I see no threat from the warlords or any substantial benefit from killing and integrating them? Sure the factories are good but why hurt myself when I know I have Japan looming over me? Why would I consider outside investment (at least initially) when I get more benefit from addressing my stability issues (which can get resolved in two focuses and an advisor) and economic issues while, building mils, and preparing the defense for Japan? I only have a limited time to prepare but all the other options either hurt me in the short term or aren't applicable until the long term
3. Manchuria: This is more of a MP balance issue but my god did paradox not even consider the fact that there might be a Manchuria and a Japanese player collaborating with one another? I've found that Manchuria can become a stupidly large resource hub for Japan and that defiantly needs some tweaking. Especially since all the resource development areas are available for Manchuria which they can develop and do the extraction decisions in order to hand it over to Japan with little to no issue. At the same time they can use the huge manpower pool and build a metric tons of 20 widths to guard the coast of China while Japan looks abroad. So in a sense its a huge juggernaut and pays in dividends for the Japanese player. Here is a screen shot of the values I had in resources by the time of 1941 and we killed china around the start of 1939. Japan Gave me the majority of the interior including Sinkang while he took the coastline.