Japanese wargoal glitches?!

[rob_mtl]

Hey so I was playing a Japan campaign. I annexed Nationalist China and Shanxi in august 1937, and left the other Chinese countries alone.

In 1940, when Italy joined the war, I DOW'd Netherlands with the war goal Acquire Territory for the Dutch East Indies (not a limited war). So I was at war with all the allies.

I then added a war goal to take French Indochina, and proceeded to land troops in Hong Kong, Malaysia, Borneo and Indonesia.

Germany defeated France a few months later. I get French Indochina. France surrenders but no Vichy is created and France remains in the allies (Germany has no French territory). Also the Netherlands are at war with me, but even though I have all of their victory points, the surrender bar isn't ticking down (Germany already annexed them earlier). US is still neutral and far from declaring on me...

What the f*** happened?

I feel like someone must have answered this somewhere on the forum, but I can't find it, so sorry if this is a double post.

To clarify, what I'm trying to do is acquire Indochina and the Dutch East Indies before declaring war on the US. What war goals should I select, and with what timing? If I declare on Netherlands when Germany does will I get the Indochina event when Vichy fires?

 

[Wraith11B]

Basically, you're supposed to (I'll be looking into it) get French Indochina for free when Germany beats France. Don't take a war goal to get Indochina, that throws the AI's plots off kilter. However, war goals can be used against Hong Kong, French Pacific Bases, British Pacific Holdings etc.

https://hoi3.paradoxwikis.com/Japan_Demands_Indochina

 

[Kovax]

The Netherlands probably became a "Government in Exile" (GiE), which means that they've given up fighting, but their government fled and is still functioning in the capital of their main ally (the UK in this case). Unless you or Germany occupy the UK, those GiEs will not formally surrender.

The problem with placing a war goal is that it sometimes (but not always) deters your allies from placing their own war goals. In the case of France, you placed a claim on French Indochina, and as a result, Germany didn't bother to place its usual "Fall of France" war goal. When France surrendered, your war goal was fulfilled, and the war ended. France now has a 5 year truce with the Axis, but is still an Allies member.

The alternatives are to either reload a previous save before you placed the war goal and NOT place your own war goal (because you'll get French Indochina anyway), or else to reload to any point before France surrenders, then tag-switch to Germany ("~" key to open the console, then type "tag GER") and place the usual "Fall of France" war goal. Don't start the clock before you tag-switch back to Japan, or else the AI will make a complete mess of Japan in only a couple of seconds, which may take weeks or months to undo.

 

[rob_mtl]

Thanks. I assumed that was what was happening. Yeah I restarted a new campaign. I'm going to DOW Netherlands as soon as Germany does to get the Dutch East Indies. I'll try and do a save prior to the Fall of France so I can tag-switch to Germany if shit gets weird.

EDIT: @Kovax tips worked like a charm!

For future reference, three steps:

1) set your wargoal (eg. Acquire Dutch East Indies)
2) Wait one month after your faction ally's DOW. TAG switch to your faction ally (in this case Germany). Set a suitable wargoal (Acquire Netherlands worked for me). In my case, I deliberately avoided taking Netherlands VPs until the month had passed and I had set Germany's wargoal.
3) TAG switch back to your country and take the VPs left.