Japan "Preparing for War"

[incognitus]

If I change the economic laws to the lowest setting and run my dissent into the ground from 1st Jan 1936 to 25th Mar 1936, I can enact "Prepare for War" as Japan, i.e. I can attack whomever I want by the end of 1936. If I throw all my IC at it, I will have dissent back at 0 by 3rd May 1936. So effectively I lose increasingly more IC from Jan to late Mar, but can spend all my IC on stuff I need, and for another 5 weeks or so I spend all my IC on Consumer Goods.

Do you think it's worth the loss in productivity?

My reasoning is that Japan has a more than sizeable army/navy/air force at the start of the game, all they are really lacking are some Artillery pieces and they can basically go and ruin anyone's day. So trading IC against lowered neutrality, seems to be a good deal to me, but I might overlook something. I guess it might even be possible to attack the US in late 1936, if I can build enough threat against them, and I could probably take them out.

Alternatively, are there any countries I could guarantee early on that would allow me to go to war with any aggressor?

 

[Kovax]

I'd consider it a marginal case either way, since Japan gets to declare war on Shanxi and China fairly early in the game anyway. I think you're about the first one to declare a war in the game (the SCW is scripted, so you can't guarantee Nationalist Spain), so placing a guarantee on another country doesn't help.

I guaranteed Nat China as Germany in one game, to get into a war against Japan in '37, and that was a REALLY strange game.

 

[incognitus]

Do you know what happens with Ghuangxi Clique? At the beginning of 1936 they own the area around Guangdong (where all the European enclaves are), but at some point Nat China takes those provinces. In one game, after they took the land, Guangxi Clique had a truce with Nat China, so in my second game I guaranteed the Clique, but this time Nat China also took the provinces, but no truce. Is it an event?

 

[Kovax]

There is an event for the death of a Chinese warlord, where China "offers" to take back Guangdong. Guangxi can either accept the demand ("We can live without Guangdong") or fight, with something like a 10-25% chance to reject the claims. Normally, China gets the land without a struggle. If the event happens early, it can buff China a bit; if it happens late and Japan trigger Marco Polo Bridge at the earliest opportunity, it can leave a lot of Chinese troops out of position.

 

[incognitus]

There is an event for the death of a Chinese warlord, where China "offers" to take back Guangdong. Guangxi can either accept the demand ("We can live without Guangdong") or fight, with something like a 10-25% chance to reject the claims. Normally, China gets the land without a struggle. If the event happens early, it can buff China a bit; if it happens late and Japan trigger Marco Polo Bridge at the earliest opportunity, it can leave a lot of Chinese troops out of position.

So does this mean if I were to guarantee Guangxi, there is a 10-25% chance for a really early war with Nat China?

 

[Kovax]

Probably. Since it's a scripted event, I can't guarantee it without reading through the script details, but it's likely.

 

[incognitus]

Ha! I did it... November 1938 and I have finally defeated the United States as Japan. Nice. It was as easy (and tedious) as everyone was saying... at some point I counted my divisions and I had exactly 50 on the continent, including Corps-HQs. Didn't actually bother with any armies, army groups or anything, so my entire army was out of OOB the entire time (who cares, right?).

Conquering the US from the west is a royal pain in the ass, though. You get NOTHING. I was 98.5% towards winning the war and all I got was 7 IC. Then from one day to the next my IC jumped from 178 to 328... ridiculous. Strangely, my leadership was barely affected (might have gone from 22.5 to 23.5). Anyways... time to trigger that bridge incident over in China *muahahaha*