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I usually build a total of 3 armor as Japan. I have had their starting panzer leader up to sk 6 in mp, and sk 7 in sp.
My tactic with China usually consists of: Land, land, land. Land everywhere, grab the entire coast, and then slowly push landinwards while your strong Northern Army comes down upon them like the fist of an angry god. Alternatively, you could DOW Guanxi during the Guanxi-China war, grab as much provinces as you can and use the foothold on mainland China for a two-pronged attack.
But, allways remember: do not go after the warlords first. When you smash em Nat. China just annexes them and becomes stronger, but if you take out Nat China before all the others the Chinese Dragon Falls event will fire and, wham, China is yours
But, allways remember: do not go after the warlords first. When you smash em Nat. China just annexes them and becomes stronger, but if you take out Nat China before all the others the Chinese Dragon Falls event will fire and, wham, China is yours
Use that IC to build mountaineers instead. South and central China has horrible infrastructure and is almost all hills/mountains. A few mountaineers divs with commando leaders do wonders.
I would also advise to build TAC instead of CAS. Their longer range make them worthwhile and they can bomb ships (might be useful in the pacific war).
The first few times I played as Japan I had a difficult time fighting China. I would invade, make some easy gains along the coast, then STALL horribly while trying to get to the interior and end up in a WWI style battle line.
The last two times I played ad Japan, I worked out a good strategy to annex all of China by the summer of 38 (war starting in summer of 37 from Marco Polo incident).
Disband all brigades, except a few MP ones, MAYBE keep some of the engineer ones. On Day 2, with auto-promotion turned on, disband all the level 1 ships that are not BB, CV or CVL.
Trade with the US (and others) for $$$ so you can put your IC to more effective uses then consumer goods.
Send your transports out to gather in all your garrisons, and deposit them on the mainland. Transfer everything to the mainland. Keep 1 unit on Japan to shuttle newly produced brigades over to the mainland.
"listen to the demands" in the 2-2-6 incident. This is the best option long term.
Concentrate your IC on upgrading existing units. By the summer of 36 your upgrades will be complete and you can begin producing new units.
I start a 6 parallel run of 5 infantry and a 9 parallel run of 5-10 militia. I then organize my forces as 2 INF + 1 MIL for LT Generals and 2-3INF + 2-3MIL for Generals/FM's. This gives me all I really need to conquer China. Their production will be completed a month or so before the Marco Polo Bridge.
After that, I begin producing TAC, FTR and naval units.
For the war, similar to TheWretchedMass, I do planned encirclements, but I do only 3. The first in NE China, very similar to his.
The second, I make an amphibious landing in Shanghai, then push in and link up with the northern troops to encircle the eastern coastline.
I then push out my frontage to just past the rivers (like Wuchang). By this time its November and I sit tight for the winter. Making progress against the chinese in winter weather is not a winning proposition.
Once spring arrives, and the chinese troops are all nice and dug in, I make an amphibious landing on the coast near Hainan Island. I then ling up with my nothern forces and cut off the south east coast, then destroy. I am then easily able to move in towards Chengdu and fire the capitulation event.
Air power (like wonderful TAC), makes your job much easier. Concentrate the airpower around your battles. Interdiction to break them, then switch to ground attack to whittle them down. It requires a LOT of micromanagement (setting up the attack to commence 1 hour after the ground forces, then pausing and switching to ground attack, etc), but the results are well worth it. Micromanaged applied air power is devastating.
The problem I now have i once china has capitulated, and annexed, what do you do then? Its 38, and not much for you to do till 40/41...
P.S. If you are at war in 41, even if it is with Afghanistan, the US oil embargo will occur. So try to have some alternative sources for your trades setup by then.
The last two times I played ad Japan, I worked out a good strategy to annex all of China by the summer of 38 (war starting in summer of 37 from Marco Polo incident).
Disband all brigades, except a few MP ones, MAYBE keep some of the engineer ones. On Day 2, with auto-promotion turned on, disband all the level 1 ships that are not BB, CV or CVL.
Trade with the US (and others) for $$$ so you can put your IC to more effective uses then consumer goods.
Send your transports out to gather in all your garrisons, and deposit them on the mainland. Transfer everything to the mainland. Keep 1 unit on Japan to shuttle newly produced brigades over to the mainland.
"listen to the demands" in the 2-2-6 incident. This is the best option long term.
Concentrate your IC on upgrading existing units. By the summer of 36 your upgrades will be complete and you can begin producing new units.
I start a 6 parallel run of 5 infantry and a 9 parallel run of 5-10 militia. I then organize my forces as 2 INF + 1 MIL for LT Generals and 2-3INF + 2-3MIL for Generals/FM's. This gives me all I really need to conquer China. Their production will be completed a month or so before the Marco Polo Bridge.
After that, I begin producing TAC, FTR and naval units.
For the war, similar to TheWretchedMass, I do planned encirclements, but I do only 3. The first in NE China, very similar to his.
The second, I make an amphibious landing in Shanghai, then push in and link up with the northern troops to encircle the eastern coastline.
I then push out my frontage to just past the rivers (like Wuchang). By this time its November and I sit tight for the winter. Making progress against the chinese in winter weather is not a winning proposition.
Once spring arrives, and the chinese troops are all nice and dug in, I make an amphibious landing on the coast near Hainan Island. I then ling up with my nothern forces and cut off the south east coast, then destroy. I am then easily able to move in towards Chengdu and fire the capitulation event.
Air power (like wonderful TAC), makes your job much easier. Concentrate the airpower around your battles. Interdiction to break them, then switch to ground attack to whittle them down. It requires a LOT of micromanagement (setting up the attack to commence 1 hour after the ground forces, then pausing and switching to ground attack, etc), but the results are well worth it. Micromanaged applied air power is devastating.
The problem I now have i once china has capitulated, and annexed, what do you do then? Its 38, and not much for you to do till 40/41...
P.S. If you are at war in 41, even if it is with Afghanistan, the US oil embargo will occur. So try to have some alternative sources for your trades setup by then.
I don't understand why you would want to make so many forces, so early.
a) I don't be believe that you need a such big force to conquer nat.china. Reason: Attack while nat.china is busy with the other warlords. It's then much easier to take it.
b) I dont think militias are worth it. Also remember the supply and upgrading cost.
I much prefer to build 3x9 or 3x6 inf, and then put everything else into building industry. You need that later, when you are going to war with UK and not at least while going to war with the USA.
a) I don't be believe that you need a such big force to conquer nat.china. Reason: Attack while nat.china is busy with the other warlords. It's then much easier to take it.
b) I dont think militias are worth it. Also remember the supply and upgrading cost.
I much prefer to build 3x9 or 3x6 inf, and then put everything else into building industry. You need that later, when you are going to war with UK and not at least while going to war with the USA.
I don't attack when Nat China is at war with the other warlords. I wait till Marco Polo. I prefer not to raise up my belligerence too high too early. Don't want the US to get extra gearing events in 36/37.
The forces built also allow you to garrison your beaches with 1INF +2MIL, plus a few reactionary forces for partisans. You also then have the core of the army you will use against the USSR. You may not need all of it to conquer china, but I think it is better to have a little extra then not enough....
MIL are worth it. They cost less supplies, less TC, less manpower AND less upgrade cost then INF. They work best for beach defense and anti-partisan duty. Lets face it, as Japan, you have a lot of territory to cover. The MIL let you stretch your manpower further.
By the summer of 37, your army is all built. You can just do with some long serial builds of aircraft, navy and some additional industry.
The forces built also allow you to garrison your beaches with 1INF +2MIL, plus a few reactionary forces for partisans. You also then have the core of the army you will use against the USSR. You may not need all of it to conquer china, but I think it is better to have a little extra then not enough....
MIL are worth it. They cost less supplies, less TC, less manpower AND less upgrade cost then INF. They work best for beach defense and anti-partisan duty. Lets face it, as Japan, you have a lot of territory to cover. The MIL let you stretch your manpower further.
By the summer of 37, your army is all built. You can just do with some long serial builds of aircraft, navy and some additional industry.
I actually experimented with TACs against China, since so many here criticized my 100+ infantry strategy. I was impressed at their killing power, but it wasn't enough to seriously hurt Chinese numbers (is anything?). It was, however, a very serious user of my oil reserves, and transport capacity. I ended up winning many months after I normally would. If I had better TC it would have been awesome, but the infrastructure damage plus the TC use slowed my infantry to a crawl, and prevented encirclements.
For draining nations with manpower problems, I can see the appeal of bombers. If you have huge TC and oil reserves but lack manpower to field more infantry, bombers are a decent substitute. Against China, though, you need massive encirclements to cause decisive damage, and you need speed; going over the TC limit hurts very bad.
EDIT: In fact, I'll point out that I based my strategy on air areas. I would look at the area tab, and try to cause every enemy force in an area to retreat, so the bombers could damage them without risk; they have a bad tendency to go for dug in stacks otherwise. Even with this focus the damage just wasn't great enough compared to getting infantry out in mass.
For draining nations with manpower problems, I can see the appeal of bombers. If you have huge TC and oil reserves but lack manpower to field more infantry, bombers are a decent substitute. Against China, though, you need massive encirclements to cause decisive damage, and you need speed; going over the TC limit hurts very bad.
EDIT: In fact, I'll point out that I based my strategy on air areas. I would look at the area tab, and try to cause every enemy force in an area to retreat, so the bombers could damage them without risk; they have a bad tendency to go for dug in stacks otherwise. Even with this focus the damage just wasn't great enough compared to getting infantry out in mass.
I'm playing my first game as Japan. I also waited for Marco Polo. China gave me more trouble than I thought they would; it took about 15 mos. to defeat them. I took the option of making the puppets. My belligerency dropped to 14. When I attacked on Dec. 7, my relations with the US were +50.
It is now late January, and I have annexed the Philippines and the Netherlands. I've captured Hawaii, Wake, Johnson, Guam, and Midway, leaving the US with Samoa as their only naval base in the Pacific. Against the Commonwealth, I've captured Singapore, Rabaul, most of New Guinea and Hong Kong. I've captured most of Burma, and I'm advancing on Calcutta.
In my latest game I annexed Shanxi quite early, right after the coup.
Then Nat.China started getting into war with Yunnan, Sinkiang and Clinxqe Couqe. I took advantage of this, and attacked. I just made 9 or 12 new inf, but used some garrisions and 7 divisions from my loyal puppet, Manchuria.
By january 1937, I was finished. I played on hard/agressive.
Then Nat.China started getting into war with Yunnan, Sinkiang and Clinxqe Couqe. I took advantage of this, and attacked. I just made 9 or 12 new inf, but used some garrisions and 7 divisions from my loyal puppet, Manchuria.
By january 1937, I was finished. I played on hard/agressive.
One fortunate thing has happened in my game. I was able to make peace with the US, since they aren't a member of the Allies (2/23/42). I got Samoa, Guam, Wake, Johnson, Midway, and all of the Hawaiian Islands.
Now I can concentrate against the Allies, and then the USSR...
Now I can concentrate against the Allies, and then the USSR...
Speaking of Japanese strategy, the wikia has some interesting options.
http://www.paradoxian.org/hoi2wiki/index.php/Japan_strategy
Here is an excerpt
Persio-Japan War
The year is 1936, we're in August and Persia is the key toward the world. Declaring war will be easy because most nations ignore the Persians. Landing in Persia is easy because they don't idolize a navy and can't stand up toward your mighty armada of death. you will need about 5 infantry units and 7 militias. once conquering Persia you will have entries into the middle east, Soviet union, Afghanistan, and India. Build up all troops into Persia and create garrison borders around you colony.
I tried this strategy, but Persia is just too far for Japan, even from Siam. Anyone know how to pull this off?
http://www.paradoxian.org/hoi2wiki/index.php/Japan_strategy
Here is an excerpt
Persio-Japan War
The year is 1936, we're in August and Persia is the key toward the world. Declaring war will be easy because most nations ignore the Persians. Landing in Persia is easy because they don't idolize a navy and can't stand up toward your mighty armada of death. you will need about 5 infantry units and 7 militias. once conquering Persia you will have entries into the middle east, Soviet union, Afghanistan, and India. Build up all troops into Persia and create garrison borders around you colony.
I tried this strategy, but Persia is just too far for Japan, even from Siam. Anyone know how to pull this off?
Persia? You can't reach them by building a naval base on the western most tip of indonesia? I used to hit indonesia in may of 36. However I never bothered with persia until after india.