Like every other version of HOI 2 DH V 1.00 just doesn't manage to represent what, beside the 1937 and 1944 offensives, essentialy was a long strategic stalemate.
Sino- Japanese War in DH:
National China goes for an Alamo centred on its capital Nanjing, even if Japan is beyond Chongqing. Japanese landings in the South, as always, are totally unopposed. The left wing of the Chinese Northern Front, as always, is too weak. Most important: Japan, as always, is blitzkrieg-pocketing the costal part of Central China (Shanghai-Nanjing) from the Chinese hinterland.
To boost National China by giving it all Chinese factions apart from Communist China surely was a right decision. It makes it easier for its military AI. Also, manpower restrictions for Japan are the right way to model the "China incident". But still...
I know, HOI just can't recreate a stalemate. HOI Combat is far too volatile for that.
But the fact remains, IRL Japan started fighting just another "border incident on the mainland" in 1937 with only 17 divisions in Northern China plus rapidly deployed 3 divisions in Shanghai. Even in 1941 there only were some 30 Japanese divisions fighting in China. Until 1944 the Japanese war aim was to break National Chinas will to fight on. This incident was about gaining exclusive indirect Japanese influence in coastal China, not about an all out conquest of the vast Chinese Hinterland. Thus, Japan aimed at directly taking the political, economical and symbolic centres of China: Nanjing, Shanghai, Peking, and later on Wuhan (Hankou) to force National China to negotiations. There was no plan B for the the unliklely & (nearly) unpreceeded case of China won't giving in and taking up the fight.
It might be a good idea to:
-lower the number of Japanese divisions even further (by manpower), and adding some Pacific war divisions later on, maybe by decision.
-revamp the Japanese AI for land operations, so to make it operate mostly/only in North China and Central/South Coastal China and leave out the Hinterland
-use a small number of fixed garrisons for every Chinese province to represent local (ex-) warlord Chinese forces, in order to prevent Japanese forces to wander around in the Hinterland totally unopposed
-give Chiang Kaishek only some 20 to 30 divisions, low quality in HOI terms, as elite maneuver forces. IRL most of those were annihilated in the Battle for Shanghai 1937.
Regards
Sino- Japanese War in DH:
National China goes for an Alamo centred on its capital Nanjing, even if Japan is beyond Chongqing. Japanese landings in the South, as always, are totally unopposed. The left wing of the Chinese Northern Front, as always, is too weak. Most important: Japan, as always, is blitzkrieg-pocketing the costal part of Central China (Shanghai-Nanjing) from the Chinese hinterland.
To boost National China by giving it all Chinese factions apart from Communist China surely was a right decision. It makes it easier for its military AI. Also, manpower restrictions for Japan are the right way to model the "China incident". But still...
I know, HOI just can't recreate a stalemate. HOI Combat is far too volatile for that.
But the fact remains, IRL Japan started fighting just another "border incident on the mainland" in 1937 with only 17 divisions in Northern China plus rapidly deployed 3 divisions in Shanghai. Even in 1941 there only were some 30 Japanese divisions fighting in China. Until 1944 the Japanese war aim was to break National Chinas will to fight on. This incident was about gaining exclusive indirect Japanese influence in coastal China, not about an all out conquest of the vast Chinese Hinterland. Thus, Japan aimed at directly taking the political, economical and symbolic centres of China: Nanjing, Shanghai, Peking, and later on Wuhan (Hankou) to force National China to negotiations. There was no plan B for the the unliklely & (nearly) unpreceeded case of China won't giving in and taking up the fight.
It might be a good idea to:
-lower the number of Japanese divisions even further (by manpower), and adding some Pacific war divisions later on, maybe by decision.
-revamp the Japanese AI for land operations, so to make it operate mostly/only in North China and Central/South Coastal China and leave out the Hinterland
-use a small number of fixed garrisons for every Chinese province to represent local (ex-) warlord Chinese forces, in order to prevent Japanese forces to wander around in the Hinterland totally unopposed
-give Chiang Kaishek only some 20 to 30 divisions, low quality in HOI terms, as elite maneuver forces. IRL most of those were annihilated in the Battle for Shanghai 1937.
Regards
